After the welfare cuts backlash the chancellor is being warned about how she wields the scalpel in her spring statement

The ferocious backlash against the £5bn in welfare cuts crafted to balance the books in this Wednesday’s spring statement highlighted an increasingly glaring conflict, between Labour’s pre-election tax pledges and the party’s wider purpose.

Since Rachel Reeves promised last autumn to deliver a single, annual budget, she has been confronted with rising debt interest costs, weaker-than-expected economic growth, and the near-collapse of the transatlantic alliance. “The world has changed,” as every Treasury press release now has it.