“This was the moment we saw real Labor government,” we said political editor Beth Rigby said in reaction to the budget.

During the election, Labor was talking about “tiny” tax increases and spending commitments compared to what was announced today.

But now it is “a government in victory that is bold and confident in the decisions they take”.

“To put it all into context, this budget, in terms of tax and spending, £74 billion is spent by the end of this parliament, £41 billion in tax increases,” she explained.

“I’ve done a number of budgets – I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been doing this for 15 years. It’s the biggest budget I’ve ever covered.”

“It’s so huge”

Beth went on to say, while Rachel Reeves spoke about the election, Rishi Sunak gave the counterargument, which was, “This was not presented in the manifesto.”

She noted that when she herself interviewed Sir Keir Starmer during the election at the Sky News Leaders Event in Grimsby, he said there were “no plans” to raise taxes above those set but “now look where I am”.

“There are massive tax increases that were not signaled in the manifesto and the Labor government will try to blame it on the Conservative Party,” Beth said.

“But this is so huge – you can’t help but come away from this budget and think that this is a Labor government that had a different agenda in the run-up to the election, that it was not equal to the British people. about.

“And I think that’s going to be the conversation in the coming days.”