Jam tomorrow

Ever since she moved into No. 10, Theresa May has had a simple pitch, said The Guardian: “I am not a born-to-rule, out-of-touch Conservative.” This week, she had an opportunity to prove it. Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement this week was supposed to be the moment that her Government showed solidarity with the “Jams”: the group previously known as “hard-working families” or “the squeezed middle”, but now, in May’s terminology, as families who are “just about managing”. In the event, there were some sops for the working poor: a slight rise in the minimum wage; more cash for families claiming universal credit; a cancelled fuel duty rise. But these will do almost nothing to soften George Osborne’s welfare cuts. There were no gimmicks – except for the news that the Autumn Statement would henceforth be abolished – and no revelations, beyond the unveiling of the black hole that the Brexit vote has made in public finances. Over the next five years, the UK will have to borrow £122bn more than planned ( see page 59).

Over the summer, May “allowed expectations of her Government’s economic policy to run away with themselves”, said Janan Ganesh in the FT. “Austerity would yield to an age of Keynesian construction and support for working families.” A few of those expectations have been met. Osborne’s goal of paying off the deficit by the end of the next Parliament has been quietly shelved. Hammond has put aside £1.4bn to deliver 40,000 affordable homes. But overall, there was “more continuity than rupture”. This was certainly not the longed-for end of austerity. Quite right too, said The Times. The Office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded its predictions for growth over the next few years, to 2.1% in 2016, and 1.4% in 2017 – thanks to Brexit and weak tax receipts. Hammond has “little room for budgetary manoeuvre”. And he sensibly used what spending power he had to invest in infrastructure, with £1bn in state backing for digital communications networks, money for transport links, and a commitment to deliver an Oxford to Cambridge Expressway.

Many governments are defined by the tensions “between prime minister and chancellor”, said Rachel Sylvester in The Times. “The resident of No. 10 instinctively wants to say ‘yes’, while the person in the Treasury always prefers to say ‘no’.” Clashes have been reported between May, who wants to reach out to Brexit voters, and “Spreadsheet Phil”, the Cabinet’s “voice of economic reason”. It seems that Hammond has won this round. Responding in the Commons, shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell started well enough, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. His line that the so-called Jams are Labour’s friends and neighbours, but just a demographic to vote-grubbing Tories, had “real sting”. Yet MPS soon lost interest. “These may once have been Labour’s people, but it remains unclear what Labour can offer them now besides an anguished critique.”