‘Spreadsheet Phil’, ‘Fiscal Phil’, ‘No silver bullet Phil’. The big question was whether the Chancellor Philip Hammond would make the transformation to ‘Political Phil’, with pre-Budget speculation that his continued tenure in that office depended on the presentation of bold or radical Budget measures.

Putting Brexit-related parliamentary manoeuvring to one side, the underlying objective behind this ‘upping of stakes’ for the Chancellor was to secure commitments from him that would improve the governing party’s standing in the country.

And in this respect, the two issues that seem to have been exercising MPs’ minds, as they look to their personal parliamentary majorities, are ‘the housing crisis’ and ‘an end to austerity’.

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