The chickens have come home to roost. After months of warning that all political parties have failed to appreciate the dire state of the public finances, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) now says ‘we told you so' as chancellor Rachel Reeves laments the £22bn deficit bequeathed to her by the previous Government

In its Green Budget report last week, which trailed the real Budget on 30 October, the IFS said the chancellor ‘cannot claim to have been caught unawares by the broader fiscal challenge awaiting her on entering HM Treasury. This has been long apparent and long ignored by both the Conservative and Labour parties. It can be ignored no longer.'