No wonder Corbyn looked horrified – this is the Budget he wanted to deliver

Often the Conservatives just steal the best lines, and carry on with policies that are biased against the poor, writes John Rentoul. But that is where the Johnson experiment gets interesting

McDonnell and Corbyn listen to Sunak delivering his Budget (PA)

The party of austerity lost the election in December. So the chancellor of the anti-austerity party boldly declared: “This is the first Budget of the new government” – and announced a £30bn fiscal boost to mark this change of direction.

Jeremy Corbyn went through the motions, saying that the Conservatives were very bad, and that some poor chap on universal credit had starved to death, but it was as if he was fighting the election before last – which, given his relative performance at those elections, is understandable.

But his hard-hearted pro-austerity opponents are nowhere to be seen. Theresa May watches harmlessly from the backbenches. David Cameron and George Osborne are no longer here. Only a few weeks ago, the last of the fiscally responsible Tories, Sajid Javid, was despatched to the re-education camp.