I was in the room for Keir Starmer's pre-budget speech and there was one repeated feeling

Sir Keir Starmer chose to make his big pre-Budget speech in one of the country’s most iconic theatre’s. But his desperate stage performance will do little to ease the concerns of hard-working Britons who face being clobbered under a welter of punishing tax rises in just two days' time. Make no mistake, as Sir Keir said himself, this Budget will be “harsh”.

Speaking in the dark surrounds of the Studio inside Birmingham Repertory Theatre the Labour leader immediately conjured up his first trick - that the Tories are to blame for the financial pummelling that is due to be unleashed on Wednesday. Sir Keir and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves say there is a £22 billion black hole in the public finances which was left behind by their predecessors. This could mean up to £40 billion in tax rises.



And the Prime Minister used his speech to make a feeble attempt to justify the pain that is coming.This was no upbeat address to give people hope - this was damage limitation for the financial blitzkrieg that is coming. Rather than the “fixing the foundations” logo on the screen behind him, this speech will give families, workers and businesses the wobbles.

Perhaps it was because Sir Keir had spent most of the weekend on an aeroplane flying back from a Commonwealth summit in Samoa but this was a flat performance. The 200-strong audience applauded politely when they had to, nothing more than that. Even when the PM promised “change” was coming they barely broke sweat in their enthusiasm.

It was somewhat ironic Sir Keir chose Birmingham, a city that has been driven to bankruptcy by a Labour-run council, to make his bold pledge to fix the UK. The people of Britain will be hoping this Labour-run government won't do the same thing to the country. Wednesday's fiscal staement will give us a good idea as to which direction we're heading.

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