Chancellor's autumn statement had all the hallmarks of a Labour budget

If you’re feeling a bit disorientated by the chancellor’s autumn statement, you’re not alone.

In just eight weeks, the government has shifted from wanting to roll out the biggest tax cuts in 50 years to taking the country’s tax burden to its highest level since the Second World War.

Liz Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng wanted to slash taxes – announcing £45bn of unfunded tax cuts in September – only for their replacements Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to swing the pendulum the other way, with an autumn statement targeting £55bn of fiscal consolidation, plus tax rises of £25bn and spending cuts at £30bn.

We’ve lurched from the zeal of Ms Truss’s low tax, small state, trickle-down economics to the pragmatism of Mr Sunak, who claims he’s instinctively a fiscal Conservative but on Thursday oversaw an autumn statement that borrowed much from the opposition front bench.

There were windfall taxes on energy companies (raising £5.6bn by 2027/8), a freeze on National…