"If we were to take a sliding door moment and imagine Labour had won the last election and the Budget speech was delivered by John McDonnell, clearly the Tory benches would have been yelling 'magic money tree, magic money tree' over and over again.
"But because it came from Risha Sunak, a former City boy it felt different.
"It’s important to remember the choice about how the Chancellor spends is always a political one, rather than an economic one.
"Clearly there has been a change in attitude under this new Tory administration, compared to the past.
"Infrastructure spending was expected as it is ridiculously cheap to borrow at the moment.
"The Budget was all about pumping money through the economy, a form of emergency financial CPR trying to stimulate businesses, even including helicopter money – dropping money from the sky onto business in the form of direct grants.
"Combined with the interest rate cuts announced earlier yesterday, this was an unprecedented, radical move to try and make sure we can get through this short-term severe economic downturn.
"We didn’t see the usual Budget tax tinkerings, the only tax change was the threshold to National Insurance which will put around £100 a year back into workers’ pockets - better than nothing.
"Another interesting and important item, announced afterwards by the Treasury, was funeral plans being brought under Financial Conduct Authority regulation. A much needed move for a fast and loose industry where regulation is important to protect people taking out these pre-paid plans.
"But we need to remember that over the next week we will discover more things in the Budget that we don’t know about yet.
"The Budget document is hundreds of pages long and things always come to light in the days following the announcement.
"We didn’t get a rabbit out of the hat, as we normally do at the end of a Budget. We got gerbil after gerbil after gerbil throughout - spending after spending with no explanation of where the money was coming from to fund these.
"If you look at net borrowing, it has definitely increased. Though I’m sure we will learn more about cut backs in other areas to fund some of it - but at a later date."
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