I now call the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make a statement, Chancellor.

Thank you, thank you.

Call it a mini-budget.

Call it a fiscal event.

Call it, well, whatever you like.

Though the new Chancellor would certainly prefer that you not call it a budget

and subject it to all sorts of nasty, detailed office for budget responsibility oversight.

Not that the announcements made by Quasi Quarteng are insignificant or unworthy of examination, far from it.

He has come out fighting with a vision for growth, growth, growth, which represents a substantial shift in direction. We need a new approach for a new era, focused on growth.

Our aim over the medium term is to reach a trend rate of growth of 2.5%.

And our plan, Mr Speaker, is to expand the supply side of the economy through tax incentives and reform.

Tax cuts for businesses and top and bottom earners, investment zones, infrastructure projects,

and end to caps on bankers' bonuses.

And don't forget the huge amount of money they've already committed to spending

on energy bills for business and consumers. Much of this will have to be funded, at least in the short

term, by huge levels of borrowing. This is not a Chancellor burdened by a lack of ambition,

and yes, he needs to be ambitious, such as the state of the economy.

But he has also set on a collision course with the Bank of England.

They hiked interest rates just the day before an attempt to squeeze demand from the economy.

What the Chancellor announced was an attempt to stimulate it.

The government has this week insisted that trickle-down economics is an invention of the left.

Yet the most eye-catching announcements on high earners' tax and bankers' bonuses

...