The storm-battered chancellor needs her nextdoor neighbour to be a steadfast friend | Andrew Rawnsley

Only half of those who voted Labour in 2024 think this government is handling the economy better than the Conservative one that the country evicted last July .

Rightwing outlets blame the paucity of growth on higher business taxes while voices of the left decry reductions to incapacity benefits as balancing the books on the backs of the poor.

Planned reductions to welfare payments are generating a sulphurous atmosphere among Labour backbenchers.

The Office for Budget Responsibility is increasingly controversial in Labour ’s ranks.

There is regret that the chancellor championed the legislation elevating the status and clout of the fiscal invigilators.

The complaint is that policymaking has become too subservient to satisfying OBR guesstimates about what growth and debt might be in five years .

Both have made improved growth the centrepiece of strategy and will pay a continuing political price.