Nicola Sturgeon is flailing in response to the Budget

The big tax and spend budget. More Gordon Brown than George Osborne. Sunak’s spending spree. However you wish to describe it, one thing is clear: Rishi Sunak’s budget marks a radical departure from previous Conservative chancellors. And while it might have ruffled the feathers of some Tories, it’s also causing problems for the SNP.

In some ways the break from Tory convention is no surprise. Calls by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020 for rich countries to spend their way out of the pandemic – and then further calls this year to shell out to boost recovery – signalled a new economic orthodoxy that Sunak has tapped into. Austerity is passé. Fiscal activism is the new normal.

Sunak’s budget raised departmental spending in this parliament by £150 billion. The government is set to spend £9 billion more on public services in 2024-25 than under pre-pandemic spending plans. In Scotland, the spending increase means a boost to the amount of cash the Scottish government receives from Westminster via the Barnett formula funding system (as does the cuts to business rates in England, which also generates positive ‘consequentials’ for Scotland) to the tune of £4.6