--- title: All Quiet on the Fiscal Front description: John Healey's first budget promised to offer breathing space - and delivered as much for the government, if not necessarily the public. image: https://truenorth.scot/hubfs/shutterstock_2709266155.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://truenorth.scot/news/all-quiet-on-the-fiscal-front#main-content) [![TN DARK BLUE](https://truenorth.scot/hs-fs/hubfs/TN%20DARK%20BLUE.png?width=3174&height=602&name=TN%20DARK%20BLUE.png "TN DARK BLUE")](https://truenorth.scot) [![True-North-New-Logo-Vector-Master-Rev-1](https://truenorth.scot/hubfs/True-North-New-Logo-Vector-Master-Rev-1.svg)](https://truenorth.scot) - [Our Services](https://truenorth.scot/our-services) - [PR & Communications](https://truenorth.scot/pr-and-communications) - [Policy & Public Affairs](https://truenorth.scot/policy-and-public-affairs) - [Marketing](https://truenorth.scot/marketing) - [Content Studio](https://truenorth.scot/content-studio) - [Branding](https://truenorth.scot/branding) - [Events Management](https://truenorth.scot/events-management) - [Media Training](https://truenorth.scot/media-training) - [Our Work](https://truenorth.scot/our-work) - [Our Team](https://truenorth.scot/team) - [About Us](https://truenorth.scot/about) - [True Stories](https://truenorth.scot/events/true-stories) - [News](https://truenorth.scot/news) - [Contact Us](https://truenorth.scot/contact) Search - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. [Andrew Liddle, Head of Government Relations](https://truenorth.scot/news/author/andrew-liddle-senior-advisor) Oct 29, 2026, 11:27:17 AM # All Quiet on the Fiscal Front John Healey's first budget promised to offer breathing space - and delivered as much for the government, if not necessarily the public. At heart, this was a “do nothing” Budget, carefully calibrated not to damage the so-called “vibes” that have helped Labour to a semi-recovery under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham. In that respect, there was much of Rachel Reeves's fiscal orthodoxy, but with rather more political nous. Healey's task – despite the prevailing rhetoric - was less to set a new economic direction than to avoid unsettling voters, businesses or, above all, the bond markets. The headline £100 energy payment for 20 million households set the tone: a tangible, easily understood giveaway, supplemented by a collection of smaller interventions on fuel duty, standing charges, food tariffs and business rates. Together, they allowed ministers to demonstrate that they were acting on the cost of living without risking the sort of borrowing spree that might spook the markets. In that narrow political sense, the Budget succeeded. It bought Healey and Burnham time, while kicking more difficult questions around defence spending and welfare reform further down the road once again. Yet the result hardly felt like the first Budget of a new administration, either. Healey himself looked distinctly nervous, not least when he declared that the Energy Secretary had “opposed” the Jackdaw gas project before hurriedly correcting himself to “approved”. Freud himself would have been delighted. Nor was there much evidence of Burnham's promised repudiation of 40 years of neoliberalism. There was little appetite for sweeping public ownership or a confrontation with business. Banks, having braced themselves for an 8 per cent windfall tax, emerged with a temporary three-percentage-point increase in their existing surcharge. Relief, rather than revolution, was the prevailing sentiment. All of this - or rather, the lack of it - has reignited speculation about an early election, although Burnham was quick to reiterate he had no plans to hold one in the next 12 months. Yet on this evidence, it seems it will be difficult for the new Prime Minister to truly deliver on his rhetoric without seeking his own mandate from the country. In a timely reminder of the jeopardy in such a decision, Kemi Badenoch was effective in response, mocking a Prime Minister who had promised to overturn the preponderant economic settlement but instead delivered “4p off gherkins”. Nigel Farage, meanwhile, did not even bother to attend, while Nancy Pelosi – former speaker of the House of Representatives – managed only 10 minutes in the public gallery before deciding she had seen enough. Ultimately, this Budget told us less about the government's long-term economic ambitions than its short-term political calculation: that an attractive retail offer, paired with Burnham's communication skills, can sustain Labour's recovery. For now, that may be right. But they would do well to remember that breathing space is only a plan if you are already drowning – and a temporary one at that. 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