Rishi Sunak’s slippery slope

There are two ways to see Rishi Sunak’s rescue package. One is an obviously needed and politically unavoidable boost to the economy and a relief for the cost-of-living crisis. The other is worrying jump towards the tax and spend policies that he once promised to avoid – and a sobering note for those who expected anything different from him. James Forsyth is inclined to the former, Kate Andrews and I are inclined to the latter. We all discuss in today’s Coffee House Shots podcast.

There are many ways a Tory government could have helped households this week. Fuel costs are soaring but about 25 per cent of all electricity bills are green taxes: why not cut them? What about making things better by not making things worse in the first place? Sunak jacked up National Insurance only last month, slicing a further 2.5 per cent from salaries – what David Cameron used to call ‘a thwacking great jobs tax’.