Rishi Sunak’s real opponent

Things are starting to get more awkward for Rishi Sunak — something the Chancellor has long been prepared for. He knew that the early months of the pandemic, in which he gave out billions in taxpayers’ cash, would fade to the rather more difficult landscape he now faces: trying to rein that spending in — and stop ministers from eking more and more out of the Treasury for their own departments. 

At this morning’s Treasury questions, Sunak inevitably faced questions about the bombshell dropped by NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens in a select committee hearing that the NHS had been budgeting for a 2.1 per cent pay rise. Katy offers more detail on Stevens’ words here, but in the Chamber, shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds demanded a ‘straight answer’ on whether the Conservatives ‘believe our nurses are worth less now than they were before the pandemic’. Sunak replied:

I pay tribute to all of those working on the frontline of our NHS and other public services.