Believe the hype – budget 2020 is very important

Chancellor Rishi Sunak needs to satisfy competing audiences, but there is a way he can do it

Every budget is billed in advance as the most crucial in recent times, but then most are instantly forgotten. The one Rishi Sunak will deliver in just over two weeks' time may be one of the few that justifies the hype.

The reason so much is resting on the shoulders of the tyro chancellor is that the budget needs to satisfy a number of different audiences: the voters in the Midlands and the north of England who gave Boris Johnson his 80-seat majority; traditional Conservative voters; the financial markets; and foreign governments looking to see whether the UK will take a lead before the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow in November.