Spring statement: Philip Hammond learns the value of politics

Philip Hammond used to pride himself on being ‘spreadsheet Phil’, the Chancellor who didn’t waste his time on politics because he preferred crunching the numbers. But today’s Spring Statement showed that he has learned the value of being overtly political.

It was, as we had expected, an economic statement that was rather thin on the announcements. But what was striking was how heavy this speech was on the politics. Unlike David Cameron and George Osborne, the Tories under Theresa May haven’t spent much time making the argument for fiscal restraint – and the effect has been that Labour has enjoyed much more sympathy for its calls for higher public spending than it did under Ed Miliband. So today the Chancellor spent longer talking about the threat of Labour’s plans than he did about his own announcements. He warned about ‘Labour’s next economic train wreck’, and detailed how much Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s spending pledges would cost.