48 hours to sharpen your act, Chancellor

IT has been billed as Philip Hammond’s make-or-break Budget – his chance to restore public faith in the Government’s sureness of touch and demonstrate a clear vision for the country.

To judge by his multiple gaffes yesterday, he’ll need to sharpen up his act before his big day on Wednesday.

Leave aside his insensitive claim that ‘there are no unemployed people’ (true, jobs figures are relatively buoyant, though less so here in Scotland – but this is cold comfort for the 1.4million out of work).

Forget, too, his recklessness in picking a fight with the cash-strapped NHS – and the farce over his plan to be photographed in a driverless car, apparently not realising what a gift this would be to satirists.

More worrying by far is why, when he should have been focusing on the Budget, the Chancellor waded into the Brexit debate, hinting he was ready to pay a significantly larger divorce bill than the generous sum pledged by Theresa May.

It is not as if the EU has offered a single concession to justify an improved offer. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has merely issued an ultimatum: cough up much more than the £18billion on the table, or we won’t even discuss our future relationship. Why should we surrender to blackmail? The truth is that millions throughout Europe depend for their livelihoods on British markets. They and their governments want a free trade deal quite as much as we do – more so, in many cases, since the UK is a substantial net importer of European goods.

Meanwhile, Brussels bureaucrats panic over how to fill the black hole left in their finances when the EU’s second largest contributor leaves. This makes money one of our strongest bargaining chips. Why throw it away before trade talks have even begun? Why not make Mr Barnier sweat?

Indeed, who but a defeatist would offer a multi-billion pound cheque, without having a clue as to what he might get in return?

In one of his interviews yesterday, Mr Hammond protested he didn’t deserve his reputation as a gloom-mongering Eeyore, insisting: ‘I’ve always been an optimist.’

He must prove it on Wednesday – or his make-or-break Budget could be his last.