LAUREN DAVIDSON PERSONAL ACCOUNT

Teetotal Chancellor’s first Budget has given us all a welcome shot of Dutch courage

Given the unenviable task ahead of him – delivering a crisis Budget just three weeks after unexpectedly becoming Chancellor – Rishi Sunak surely deserved to partake of the tradition that makes the Budget the only occasion when a minister is allowed to drink alcohol at the dispatch box.

The teetotal Chancellor sipped only water during his speech but he brought booze to the box in another way by backtracking on previous plans to raise “sin taxes”, instead freezing duties on beer, cider, wine and spirits.

This was a wise move. The stats on coronavirus are worsening by the day. The stock market has dropped at a truly alarming pace. Hours before the Budget, the Bank of England announced a surprise cut to interest rates – meaning your savings are doing less than ever – and hours after the Budget, LV became the first major insurer to stop offering travel policies, to name a few highlights from the past week alone. This would not have been the time for Mr Sunak to raise the price of a stiff drink.

In reality, a few extra pennies on a pint wouldn’t have broken the bank for most people. But it shows how well Mr Sunak understood his role. This was a much-needed goodnews Budget in a period of unprecedented mayhem.

Though many of the measures were short term, the majority of people will be better off as a result of this

Budget (you can find out how it affects your take-home pay using our online calculator at telegraph.co.uk/money). Indeed, while we at Telegraph Money were writing our Budget “winners and losers” list, we struggled to come up with many that fell into the latter category. The former, however, was bursting: anyone who pays National Insurance, workers who claim sick pay, low earners on the minimum wage, (most) high earners affected by the pensions taper, women who use sanitary products, families who save into Isas, drivers, readers who prefer e-books and digital journalism and, of course, drinkers.

Seven in 10 readers, responding to a poll on the Telegraph website, said they liked the Budget. Even Labour couldn’t find much to grumble about.

Sure, major issues were ignored – social care, inheritance tax, property – while other problems were kicked down the road, with little mention of how the Government plans to pay for its biggest handout in decades. But, for now at least, as we try to understand the rapidly changing world around us, Mr Sunak has equipped us all with a shot of Dutch courage.

Money newsletter

Get the best of straight to your inbox every week

telegraph.co.uk/moneynewsletter