Has Rishi Sunak just destroyed his relationship with Boris?

I said yesterday that I expected the Chancellor to increase universal credit by more than planned. I was misled. I was wrong. Today, Rishi Sunak’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, is explicit about how painful Sunak’s refusal to increase benefits will be for those who rely on them. It says: 

‘Lags in CPI (or inflation) uprating of benefits mean they fall almost five per cent in real terms in 2022-23, reducing their real value by £12bn, and take up to 18 months to catch up fully with higher inflation’.

It means those who are unemployed, on very low incomes, or who rely on the state pension, are going to be in dire trouble in coming months.

Contrast that £12bn real cut with the £500m being allocated to local councils so that they can help those struggling most with the cost of living in a ‘targeted’ way.