At her first spending review, set out billions of pounds in public sector investment in infrastructure, with Reeves telling MPs her priority was to ‘invest in Britain’s economic renewal… investment to rebuild our transport networks, rebuild our defence capability, and to rebuild our energy security. In short to grow our economy.’

‘Today I am allocating the envelope I set out in the spring,’ the chancellor told MPs, adding she had been ‘crunching the numbers, looking at the assets and the liabilities’.

On spending, there will be an increase of 2.3% to £190bn for day to day running of public services and departmental spending in real terms.

Reeves stressed her fiscal rules would not be changing and set out significant investment and funding increases for protected departments, but the Home Office was one of the losers.