Rishi Sunak is right, it’s not his fault – he can’t solve every problem

Much like Gordon Brown, this chancellor can point to global issues outside of his control that are driving Britain’s current woes, writes Salma Shah

To be fair to Sunak, he’s gone from Brexit to pandemic, straight into a European war (Getty)

Rishi Sunak is right. In recent days, in anticipation of the spring statement, he laid out the extent of the economic challenge and told us that he can’t solve every problem – and it’s true. Despite this, the expectation remained high; with demands to help one group or another continuing to get louder and more desperate by the day.

His speech today was certainly a reminder that his pandemic largesse is over. Even some usually-supportive backbenchers wondered when the chancellor sat down, “Is that it”?

A temporary 5p off fuel duty, VAT off renewables and a raise in the national insurance payment threshold was part of a smattering of help he offered to increasingly worried families.

To be fair to Sunak, he’s gone from Brexit to pandemic, straight into a European war. It’s being touted as a once-in-a-300-year economic crisis and from today’s downgrading of growth it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better anytime soon.

We’re now faced with, according to the OBR, the biggest fall in household disposable income since the 1950s when records began, alongside the highest tax burden in 70 years. Dishy Rishi doesn’t have a lot of room to manoeuvre and if inflation goes above the 8 per cent we’ve been told to expect, we’re in serious trouble.

Again, it’s not his fault – much like Gordon Brown, this chancellor can point to global issues outside of his control that are driving Britain’s current woes.

Unlike his dour predecessor, he sometimes seems like the wrong person to deliver a bad message. He’s criticised for almost everything he buys, including questionable coffee cups, his tech bro sense of style and his smart PR operation. While he may be putting together a brand, no number of Insta stories is going to change the perception, however unfair, that being worth a bob or two limits your understanding of poorer people’s struggle.

All his actions instantly become difficult political ground, as a consequence of his personal financial comfort.

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Rich or not, he can’t just abandon his new social care tax as some have suggested. We’re about to face an absurd backlog in the NHS, and social care still needs a properly-funded solution. His proposed tax plan to bring income taxes back to lower levels is dependent on the books balancing elsewhere, but the social care tax will have a direct impact on one of the hardest hit areas of government. To delay it even for a short amount of time could be devastating for care.

The chancellor needs to take a long view of his economic interventions. It’s sensible policy-making, but he has to balance this carefully against the need of MPs desperately trying to prove that Conservatives are still competent stewards of the economy. That tends to mean lots of giveaways – and a push to make headway in one important group or another. But who to giveaway to – and who to take from – is especially difficult in a situation where everyone is going to feel worse off.

He is somewhat caught between, on the one hand, the ideological purity of Thatcherite small state and living within one’s means – typical of that treasury orthodoxy we hear about so often – and on the other, the clamour for the state to do more, no matter the cost to competition in the market.

He is fond of offering jam tomorrow. Whether you’ll get any, when the time comes, remains to be seen.

Salma Shah was special adviser to Sajid Javid, from 2018 to 2019. She was also a special adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport