Thank goodness the budget has finally been announced!

The final twist came when the Office for Budget Responsibility released key details just forty minutes before the Chancellor took to the dispatch box, a fitting end to an already chaotic pre-Budget period.

It felt like Rachel Reeves was drafting her budget in reaction to whatever vibes she picks up from the policies the Treasury trailed in the press. Junking some, tweaking others, being swayed by backbench pressure.

And the most eye-catching reversal from her first budget last year was the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap. Brought in by the Conservatives, this cap has often been seen as a big driver of childhood poverty.

That an estimated 4.5 million children are living in poverty today should shame any Government and the Lib Dems have long been urging Labour to act. Scores of Labour backbenchers were doing the same.

Scrapping the cap is not just the right thing to do for children in poverty – it is also what is right for our economy and public services.

Children growing up in poverty face worse educational outcomes, poorer physical and mental health, and fewer opportunities in adulthood.

There’s no question eradicating poverty is a social good – though it’s going to take far more than lifting this cap to do it.

There was little mention for the South West, nothing for buses or broadband, and nothing to replace funding lost from rural services, and the Chancellor is still pressing ahead with the family farm tax. The fact this policy is going ahead, despite everything we have learned since it was first announced, shows how little Labour understands rural communities and how willing they are to ignore the potential of the rural economy.

When they announced it, they said only a small number of farms would be affected. This wasn’t right. Then they also said the cost incurred wouldn’t be substantial. I surveyed farmers in South Devon and the average bill they are facing is £300,000.

Farmers may be land rich, but many are cash poor, with over a third making no profits in the past year. The only way to pay this will be to break up farms.

The implications of this policy are huge, and not just for rural communities like ours. Farmers are vital for our food security and play a crucial role in combating climate change, so why is this Government hammering them?

Another policy change caught my eye, though the Chancellor didn’t announce it. The red book suggests central government will cover SEND costs from 2029, easing pressure on local authorities. But only £6 billion has been earmarked, far short of current costs, leaving questions over how the rest will be funded.

The words environment and climate did not appear once in the Budget speech. I’d like to say that was shocking, but sadly it wasn’t. There was no radical plan to retrofit the nation’s homes, no tax incentives to shift behaviour, and no sign of any intention to fund the work needed to address the climate crisis. As we heard at the National Emergency Briefing the day after the Budget, the cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of acting now. Every year we procrastinate, the cost rises, and it’s a tragedy that we have a government unwilling to face reality.