But the widespread suggestion that you’ll be able to blink and miss the Budget has got some hackles up in the Treasury. A budget, by its very nature, can never be a small event – it sets billions upon billions of taxes and spending decisions.
And there are likely to be extra taxes on banks, vows to sweep away some business regulation, particularly for small business, more powers passing to local leaders under the guise of devolution and more action on energy bills which are heading back up again.
John Healey has made it clear publicly and to staff, that he wants to encourage people with the guts and drive to start a business. One source said: “If you are taking on John’s mantra about talking up Britain then you can’t say, ‘Nothing to see here’.”
Whatever else the chancellor brings to Parliament in his red box, do not expect him to arrive with all the solutions to the country’s very well-documented problems, whether that’s getting the economy growing more convincingly, sorting out gaps in defence cash, welfare, social care, or new ways to pay off the country’s groaning debts more quickly.
One former minister suggests even if Healey and Burnham had stumbled upon all the answers in a few months, it’s just not possible to fix everything at the same time because of the constraints on the economy.
They wondered: “Is he going to invest in growth? Is he going to put everything he has into the challenges people will face this winter? Is he going to throw it at defence? There is just not enough to tackle all these problems simultaneously – ministers are going to be exposed to the cold light of day.”
Burnham and Healey have to find a way of maintaining the balance in an unusually happy Labour Party.
MPs talk of ministers and Burnham himself being more visible and approachable in Parliament, knocking around with colleagues in the evening, fewer “golden slips” doled out when ministers were excused from voting alongside colleagues so they could get on with their important jobs.
One minister told me they’d had to tell their private office not to arrange for them to be “slipped” , from going to the Commons in the evening to see backbenchers.
It’s paying off in the mood among MPs. One told me: “You’re not feeling like the only way you can ever have a chat with a minister is by arranging an appointment for three months down the line – the soft touches really matter.”
