Gordon Brown had not planned it like this. He imagined the prime ministerial Daimler purring outside the Commons during Alistair Darling’s mini-Budget statement, ready to whisk him to Buckingham Palace to seek the dissolution of parliament. The Queen had a slot cleared in her diary.

Mr Brown’s decision on Saturday to abort Labour’s election planning left Mr Darling, the chancellor, in an awkward position. As George Osborne, shadow chancellor, put it: “He has delivered a pre-election Budget without an election.”