Driven by memories of a childhood under the Tories, the chancellor prepares to deliver a budget she hopes will be seismic in its scope

Rachel Reeves is clear about the motivation driving Wednesday’s budget, which she believes will be a transformational moment for Britain – her childhood growing up in south London under the Tories.

“For me, this is really personal,” she says. “I joined the Labour party in the first place because of the state of schools in the 80s and 90s. When I was at secondary school, our sixth form was a couple of prefab huts in the playground and our school library was turned into a classroom because there were more students than space.