Today just about everybody gets poorer
Time to bet on Sunak’s survival?
Above are just six the latest front pages which focus on what looks set to be a hugely difficult period for the government as the cost of a lot of things goes up sharply and, of course, take home drops because of the rise in National Insurance levels.
Already we have seen that LAB is making this it major political campaign and inevitably it will be the government that gets the blame. That Sunak’s spring statement offered zero extra help for or even an ackowledgement that things are very tight will be looked back on as not being very smart.
We’ll see the first political test in a month’s time in the May 5th local elections and it is hard to predict anything other than a drubbing for the Tories on that night. The question for the Tory leadership at Westminster will be how the party’s backbench MPs react.
Of course the reaons for the squeeze are clear – Ukraine and the huge costs of dealing with COVID but it is how the burden is shared that will be the focus.
You can also see Johnson’s defining policy of Brexit becoming an issue.
It’s a 40% chance on Smarkets that Sunak won’t survive the year as Chancellor which looks a value bet.