Labour has learned that austerity is hard to avoid

As long as economic growth remains anaemic, pressure on spending will endure.

It is becoming increasingly commonplace to hear complaints from the left that this Labour government is proving to be rather right wing. On the big tax and spend decisions, it is alleged, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are acting like Tories. The criticism is set to get louder in a few weeks when Reeves seeks to meet her fiscal rules by imposing welfare cuts. It will feel very much like something from the George Osborne era of austerity.

Ministers, of course, will deny this and argue that the circumstances today are very different to those of 2010 and subsequently. But as someone who was part of Osborne’s Treasury team at the time, I am not sure they are so different.