Will Rishi Sunak really do “whatever it takes” as promised?

Labour has unveiled a new shortlist of two candidates who will now compete for selection by members to become the party’s Liverpool mayoral candidate. One is Joanne Anderson, no relation to Joe; the other is Anthony Levelle. Both were elected to the council recently, in 2019 and 2016 respectively. The shortlist has clearly divided the party: one source welcomed it as a “clean break”, and Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson said Anderson’s shortlisting in particular was “great news”, whereas local MPs Dan Carden and Ian Byrne signed an open letter warning that it looks like a “stitch-up” and demanding transparency. Check out the full story here.

The biggest political event of the day – just about, considering that Nicola Sturgeon is giving evidence to the Alex Salmond inquiry and facing a confidence vote – is the Budget, of course. Many announcements have already been made, ensuring that the positive top lines receive coverage before journalists sink their teeth into the details today. It was last night confirmed that furlough will be extended until the end of September. This follows reports of more money for the vaccine rollout, a £5bn scheme for high street businesses, a mortgage guarantee scheme and support for museums, theatres, galleries in England.

Labour is keen to highlight that these confirmations of continuing Covid aid could have been delivered earlier, as timing itself is crucial in saving jobs and businesses. The focus appears to be on Rishi Sunak “getting his moment in the sun”, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Bridget Phillipson remarked. Ahead of the Budget, it is worth reading her LabourList piece, which offers a useful overview of how Labour will approach the Budget this afternoon, comparing hopes to expectations, and spells out clearly the leadership’s argument for not backing immediate tax rises of any kind (including criticism of the government framing of public debt being like personal debt).

Anneliese Dodds told the TUC rally last night that this should be a “Budget for our key worker heroes”. As Elliot reports here, the group of frontline workers and trade union leaders took aim at ‘fire and rehire’ practices and called for Covid support to be extended “for as long as it takes”. It is expected that the Chancellor will today promise just that: to do “whatever it takes”. The last time we heard the government commit to “whatever it takes”, it was a pledge aimed at helping local government through the crisis. Robert Jenrick soon backtracked and admitted that the huge funding gap would not be addressed, pushing councils towards breaking point and leaving residents to pay more regressive council tax. Will Rishi Sunak’s promise be any different?