Rachel Reeves’s carefully constructed £22 billion fiscal buffer could be eroded by as much as £14 billion as a result of policy U-turns and a sharper-than-expected fall in net migration, raising fresh questions about the durability of the chancellor’s budget strategy. Markets initially welcomed Reeves’s November budget, which more than doubled the government’s fiscal headroom and was seen as a signal of discipline after months of concern over the public finances. However, less than two...










