So, there we have it. The first Budget of the Burnham Government has come and gone, and it was, overall, quite a quiet affair.

The Prime Minister entered Downing Street promising to be a circuit breaker for the country. He ended his first 100 days in office with his government pledging to cut tariffs on baked beans. Quite the downsizing of ambition.

But the Chancellor’s statement did feature some important news for us in South Devon. First and foremost, the Red Book, which accompanies the Chancellor’s speech, revealed Devon is in the final stages of securing a devolution deal for a mayor.

I really welcome this. Our county was at risk of missing major funding streams without having a mayor in place. As things stood, Devon could have easily been left behind. Now, we will be in the running for strategic level funding.

Another announcement which stood out concerned data centres. Just the other week, I asked the Minister how the government will triple data centre capacity without jeopardising local water and energy needs. His words didn’t fill me with confidence. Neither did the Chancellor’s at the Budget.

According to John Healey, data centres will only be constructed if they abide by a strict Data Centres Covenant, which includes environmental standards. On the surface, this sounds promising, but the language he used was clearly pro-industry.

So the proposed North Devon Data Centre will be a test case. Given it could threaten the area’s unique UNESCO biosphere designation, it should be an automatic no, otherwise the Covenant isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

I was disappointed the Chancellor didn’t mention fishing once in the Budget. While he did extend the reduction in red diesel duty, this is

small fry compared to the support other European countries are offering.

The lack of support is leaving our fishers in a farcical situation where they are watching French and Dutch boats fish in our waters while they weigh up whether they can cover the cost of the fuel they need to go out at all. It is ludicrous and I’ll be raising this with the government.

I’ll also be raising the challenges faced by the hospitality industry, which got little attention in the Budget. The Prime Minister likes to film TikTok videos in pubs, debating the Chancellor over the best pub snack. But he might need a new filming location soon.

The closure of pubs has accelerated under Labour, partly thanks to Rachel Reeves’ decision to hike employer national insurance contributions.

The Chancellor should have reversed this. The fact he didn’t shows he possesses the short-term, short-sighted thinking that plagued his predecessor.

I hear from businesses all the time who would like to employ more people but cannot afford to do so. Every young person who gets a job stops claiming benefits, starts paying income tax, and spends the money they earn within the economy.

The government wins in multiple ways even if they take less money directly. If the Chancellor was serious about boosting growth and supporting young people, he should have reversed this jobs tax. That he didn’t, leaves me fearing that far from being a circuit breaker, the Burnham Government is just wired the same way.