The public will put up with some tax rises for the better off, but the chancellor must beware of becoming Scrooge this winter.
Rachel Reeves's first budget on 30 October is still nine weeks away. But already she's facing a political onslaught on two fronts. Tories claim the fiscal event will be a Halloween horror for the middle classes and 'Middle England', with rumoured rises in inheritance tax and capital gains tax. And the chancellor also faces a backbench backlash from Labour MPs over her axing of winter fuel payments of up to £300 for all but the most hard-up pensioners.
And while the government will use every tactic they can to try to avoid a vote, there's fury on the Labour backbenches - and not just among the 'usual suspects' on the hard left. What both these rows have in common, of course, is that the prime minister and chancellor blame the £22bn 'black hole' in the nation's finances they claim they've inherited from the Tories. 'We were left a £22bn black hole for this year...
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