Tax cut promises, spending hike pledges – and an air of unreality

We apologise for not being swept away by the mania for new announcements that infests this leadership contest.

Alex Morton: This week, Hammond’s Budget. Next year, the Spending Review. It must focus on gaining more growth.

The Treasury should not simply accept the growth figures given by the OBR, but seek to raise them.

WATCH: Hammond says he’d need a new Budget in the event of no-deal Brexit

“The approach that I’m going to be setting out tomorrow is based on the assumption, as is the OBR’s report, of a deal being done with the European Union.”

WATCH: “The best [economic] modelling in the world is wrong”, Davis tells the Brexit committee

The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union cites the way in which the OBR repeatedly fails to predict the deficit as an example of inevitable modelling errors.

Hammond’s seriousness, professionalism and – yes – dullness make Labour look lightweight

It is not that he dares to be dull, but that he cannot help being so. He has prudently turned it to his advantage.

WATCH: Shapps – Hammond’s Budget “cheered the backbenchers up”

But he says the way the Chancellor presented the OBR’s growth figures was “interesting”.