Was this Andy Burnham’s budget – the bold vision of a new prime minister who burns with a passion to topple “40 years of neoliberalism”? Was it John Healey’s budget – the repair job of a cautious chancellor fretting about record-high taxes, £3tn of public debt and an economy stuck in first gear? This budget was cast in the image of a man who isn’t in Burnham’s government or even a Labour politician – but who appears almost every day on TV, on podcasts and is probably better known than 649 of the MPs at Westminster.
Today’s budget was the Martin Lewis budget. Lewis is the MoneySavingExpert, whose weekly Money Tips email advises 10 million British subscribers on cheap mortgages, Black Friday deals and how to score two pizzas for £10. Tips and tricks to stave off rising prices and make the most of the money you have.
Given that the Bayeux tapestry is French, and the Koh-i-noor is Indian, Lewis may be the closest thing Britain has to a genuine national treasure. Over the past four years, since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine and sent energy prices soaring, Lewis has become more political and wielded greater influence in Westminster. His fingerprints were all over this “red book”.
This morning, before the cabinet had even had its traditional pre-budget pep talk, Lewis had gone to Downing Street for a personal briefing from the chancellor on its key measures. On Radio 4’s Today programme, he was the big budget interview, rather than any politician or BBC editor. No wonder, because the most eye-catching of the budget’s measures had been written by the money saving expert.
Scrapping standing charges on gas bills, shielding more pensioners from income tax and fixing energy bill credit against council tax bands – all of these came from Lewis’s wishlist. Beyond policies, he has also informed Burnham’s politics. At last year’s Labour conference, Lewis advised any new prime minister to “pick a hundred things that piss people off and fix them at one a day for the first hundred days”.
The King of the North has vowed to end loudcasting on public transport, crack down on unfair parking fines and introduce more drop boxes for the post … and more and more. For Labour ministers, government by MoneySavingExpert may seem a no-brainer. After a wretched couple of years under Keir Starmer, they can pose as the people’s champion, for ever on your side.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
