Philip Hammond’s driverless car U-turn

On Sunday, Philip Hammond took both No 10 and No 11 by surprise with his interview on the Andrew Marr show. As well as announcing that there are ‘no unemployed people’, he promised to launch Budget week by posing in a driverless car, on a visit to the West Midlands today.

Given that it doesn’t take much to work out that a beleaguered Chancellor about to deliver his budget pictured in a driverless car is not a metaphor for success, people soon took to social media to ask who had approved such an idea.

It turns out no-one. As the Times reports today, aides had explicitly ruled out such a stunt. There was a plan for the chancellor to see a driverless car today but not for him to sit in one. It follows that neither Hammond nor May will be getting in the passenger seat on their day out.