John Healey is short of money. As the Chancellor gears up for his first Budget on Wednesday 28 October, the bindings constricting his choices are many and varied: don’t spook the bond markets by announcing more borrowing after the IMF’s warning, maintain the Labour manifesto promise to avoid raising the three main tax levers of income tax, national insurance and VAT, don’t make spending cuts that will send newly buoyant Labour MPs into meltdown – but still find the cash for Andy Burnham’s cost-of-living giveaways and (ideally, given Healey’s former job) for defence. In short, he is in almost exactly the same position as Rachel Reeves was for her two Budgets.

So why has the Chancellor reportedly chosen to reject a pot of money worth up to almost £20bn a year?

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