The real message of Rishi Sunak’s budget will be laying groundwork for next election | Richard Partington

Chancellor will want to show government is looking to future despite supply crisis and Covid

Soaring living costs, shortages on supermarket shelves and a health emergency that was supposed to be all over bar the shouting.

Rarely in peacetime has a British chancellor faced a more perilous economic backdrop for a budget, as the Covid recovery runs out of steam amid rising pressure on families and the worst supply chain meltdown since the 1970s.