Jonathan Hartley

Will Lewis just sent a note to staff at The Washington Post announcing that he is stepping down as publisher.

This is getting quite serious for the Chancellor. In the run up to the Budget we were told that the OBR’s downgrading of productivity would create a multi-billon black hole. The government started preparing public opinion for a manifesto-breaking rise in income tax. We were not told that rising wages and inflation meant more tax revenues to offset the productivity downgrade. But Rachel Reeves was. By October 31 the OBR told Reeves that she was actually sitting on a £4.2 billion surplus. Yet four days later she gave a press conference in Downing Street at which she suggested that the watchdog’s forecasts were worse than expected and made the case for tax rises. “What I want people to understand ahead of the budget, is the circumstances we face,” she said. “I could … sweep those challenges under the carpet. I am being honest with people.” In fact, as we now learn, she was being the opposite of honest. She might not survive this.

Ronald Reagan explained it 50 years ago. Tax on business becomes a tax on ‘working people’. Politicians still don’t understand this.

BREAKING: Reeves’ lettings agency has apologised to her for the "oversight": Gareth Martin, owner of Harvey Wheeler, said: "We alert all our clients to the need for a licence. In an effort to be helpful our previous property manager offered to apply for a licence on these clients' behalf, as shown in the correspondence. That property manager suddenly resigned on the Friday before the tenancy began on the following Monday. "Unfortunately, the lack of application was not picked up by us as we do not normally apply for licences on behalf of our clients; the onus is on them to apply. We have apologised to the owners for this oversight. "At the time the tenancy began, all the relevant certificates were in place and if the licence had been applied for, we have no doubt it would have been granted. "Our clients would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for. Although it is not our responsibility to apply, we did offer to help with this. "We deeply regret the issue caused to our clients as they would have been under the impression that a licence had been applied for."