Preferable to Starmer he may be, but there is scant sign of a sharp political break in Burnham’s policies so far — while left challenges aren’t making much of a running either, finds ANDREW MURRAY. How can socialism be put back on the map?
BEHIND the bad jokes, gimmicks and rather meagre “giveaways” in this week’s Budget, the main story was a substantial downgrading of growth forecasts in a situation where economic growth is already currently the lowest it has been since the Tories came into office and the slowest of the major economies in the G7.
Forecasts for wages and productivity have also been downgraded as have levels of business investment.
As the economist Larry Elliott put it, “the real story was not the latest attempt to boost home ownership but the news from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on the state of the economy. This was little short of calamitous.”
A sharp rise in public-sector investment is required to kick-start the economy, argues MICHAEL BURKE
SOPHIE BOLT argues that spending more on military will harm rather than benefit Britain by diverting vital resources away from essential public services
Only an ambitious programme of state-led investment can restore growth and improve living standards, argues MICHAEL BURKE
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE



