Economy and Tax
Everything else a government wants to do depends on the money to pay for it, which makes the economy the area where the hardest choices are made and the most promises broken. Tax rates and thresholds, the level of borrowing, growth and productivity, the cost of living and the rules governing business all sit here. Manifesto pledges not to raise particular taxes collide with the arithmetic of the public finances, and the distance between what was promised at an election and what is delivered in a Budget is one of the clearest tests of whether a government can be trusted.
The department responsible
The most powerful department in Whitehall. Ministers come and go, policies rise and fall, but sooner or later almost every major decision ends up on a Treasury desk with a price tag attached.
MPs scrutinising this most
By written questions tabled to the department this Parliament.
1. Callum Anderson Labour3792. Rt Hon Richard Holden Conservative3073. Dame Harriett Baldwin Conservative2874. Kevin Hollinrake Conservative2745. Andrew Griffith Conservative274Recent Commons votes
Bills and Acts
Investigations
Keir Starmer was not elected on ideological excitement. He was elected on trust. Two years on, the promises Labour broke are the ones that mattered most to voters.
Trump is threatening a 100 percent tariff on every UK good sold to America unless Britain scraps a digital tax worth a fraction of the trade at stake. The tax will go. The real lesson is that a deal with this White House lasts exactly as long as it suits him.