Even Liz Truss’s closest allies are nervous

There is a slightly odd atmosphere at Tory conference in Birmingham. Those who should be striding around triumphantly are instead rather nervous. One of Liz Truss’s closest ideological allies was quick to stress to me that while they might have shaped the thrust of the new Prime Minister’s ideas, they weren’t responsible for their execution in the Budget by any other name.

Strikingly, the abolition of the 45p rate of tax on the highest earners has very few friends. Even those who you would expect to laud the measure are at pains to say that they wouldn’t have done it now. Meanwhile, Michael Gove is touring the conference fringes making the case against it. Jake Berry’s threat to take the whip away from those who vote against it isn’t stemming the number of MPs going public in their opposition to it, which is now up to 12.

The problem with the 45p rate abolition is that it makes everything else more difficult.