The stakes could not be higher. Here is the Budget Hammond must deliver to save us from Corbyn

ALL this year, just one subject has dominated Theresa May’s in-tray. Brexit. But next week, the Prime Minister at last has a welcome chance to change the political weather.

She can use Monday’s Budget to start shaping the kind of Britain she wants.

She can make an emphatic statement about whether she prefers a low tax, low spending Britain or — as many fear — a sclerotic, high tax, high spend economy of the kind advocated by Labour.

But it’s not just Mrs May who has an opportunity to stamp her mark on history next week. Chancellor Philip Hammond must do so as well.

So far, he has been a frankly mediocre and low-grade holder of a great office. He carries his Treasury Red Box with the tentative air of a man who has been awarded the job due to some dreadful error.

However, in this year’s Budget, he — and the PM — can benefit from a staggering slice of luck if they choose to do so.

The Office for Budget Responsibility — the supposedly independent body which makes official economic forecasts — has got it wrong once again. The British finances are stronger than the OBR predicted — releasing billions of pounds into the national coffers.

Yippee! But what will the pair do with it? I’m afraid to say that the signs are ominous. Three weeks ago, Mrs May announced an end to austerity. Beyond question, this remark was based on foreknowledge of those recovering government finances, and the PM seemed to be hinting at an impending spending splurge.

As I have said before, such an attack of Corbynitis would be most regrettable.

SOTOdAY I issue a friendly warning to both Mrs May and Mr Hammond and offer some words of advice. First and foremost, they must not forget a key group of voters who help put the Tories into power — the self-employed.

If any single group defines what modern Britain stands for, it is them. Small businessmen and women who are self-reliant because they have to be. They create wealth and employment — and, above, all they pay their taxes.

To their eternal shame and discredit, the Cameron governments waged economic war on them, treating them as cash cows, taxing them at every move, and squeezing their living standards in an unforgivable way. This must be redressed.

Mr Hammond should abandon all thought of reducing VAT thresholds, thus adding yet further to the bureaucratic burden they face.

The Chancellor also needs to lower taxes on small businesses, and cease to use them as agents of the state, forcing them to collect useless data while imposing ever more ludicrous health and safety demands.

This brings me directly to the second injustice that Mrs May and Mr Hammond must remedy. It concerns the huge international corporations — above all the tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook — who profiteer at British taxpayers’ expense.

Successive Conservative governments have added grievously to the tax burden of genuine British businesses while letting their international competitors off scot-free.

Let’s take the case of Amazon. As the Mail’s Business Editor Ruth Sunderland exposed in a deeply troubling article on Thursday (it ought to be compulsory reading for every minister), Amazon’s internet shopping service is destroying Britain’s High Streets.

Just look at the grisly fate of those retail stalwarts, 250-year-old debenhams, which is set to close a third of its stores, and 169-year old House of Fraser, which went into administration in August.

In stark contrast, in just three months this summer, Amazon racked up international revenues of almost £ 41 billion. In 2017, Amazon UK made £8.8 billion in sales yet paid taxes of a derisory £ 4.6 million ( the equivalent of 0.05 per cent).

This is disgraceful and there is every reason to suspect that some accounting jiggery pokery — albeit legal — has enabled Amazon to avoid paying its way.

To sum up, this morally questionable company is simultaneously destroying conventional retail outlets while costing the taxpayer billions.

I am heartened by reports today of a planned £1.5 billion rescue package for the High Street, but Philip Hammond will have to do more. I’m afraid that he has been intimidated by threats from the tech giants, but any British chancellor worth his salt would call their bluff. And if not now, then when?

If Hammond doesn’t act against Amazon and its ilk, given the opportunity Jeremy Corbyn most certainly will.

Mr Hammond has plenty of other opportunities for saving money to invest elsewhere. Slashing the Foreign Aid budget is one priority. Over the past ten years, the British taxpayer has spent well over £100 billion — that’s almost £10,000 for every family in this country during a period of supposed economic austerity.

It has been a disgraceful waste of money, which has lined the pockets of foreign dictatorships and charity fat cats while doing little or nothing to abate poverty. Now is the moment to deal with this scandal, too.

TENSof billions of pounds can also be released by scrapping former Chancellor George Osborne’s HS2 vanity project which, while enriching consultancy firms and bosses who seem to come and go with alarming frequency, will blight hundreds of miles of Middle England for the sake of a fractionally quicker journey to Birmingham.

And what about the ‘just about managing’ middle- classes or ‘Jams’ that Mrs May was once so fond of talking about? Everybody earning £ 46,351 or more is currently taxed at 40 per cent.

That tax threshold must be raised to liberate millions of ordinary, decent, hard-working people and give them more spending money.

I also believe that the Treasury must turn its attention to those at the bottom of the scale.

Unlike the Labour Party, I see the controversial Universal Credit system as a force for good. However, there is no question that there are teething problems with it, and it is causing suffering among some of society’s most vulnerable. The Treasury must acknowledge and remedy some of that blatant unfairness.

This is a challenging and complex Budget to deliver and Chancellor Hammond has a difficult double act to perform. He needs to release more money where needed, but without letting go of the Treasury’s iron grip on public finances.

More than anything, though, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor need to cheer us all up, to remind us of record employment figures, booming exports and falling deficit — and to re-establish a belief in Brand Britain. And then give us something to cheer about!

The stakes are huge. I can think of few Budgets in recent history which have such a chance to shape our national future over years to come.

If the Chancellor fails, Jeremy Corbyn may soon be installed in No 10 — with Marxist John Mcdonnell, his Chancellor, next door.