Chris Lloyd listened in as Philip Hammond presented his first, and last, Spring Budget as the country waits on the cusp of Brexit

SPREADSHEET Phil came to the Commons with sheaves of statistics but, sidestepping the Public Sector Net Borrowing requirement and the Small Business Rate Relief level, the most telling one was that the 2016 Budget referred to 77 measures whereas in yesterday’s statement there were just 28.

It was such a thin speech that there were more jokes than there were unleaked policy announcements – and this from a famously dull politician.

It was such a thin speech that the biggest story is that Chancellor Philip Hammond might have broken the Conservative Party manifesto by raising one of the four classes of National Insurance Contributions – but when did you last hear of a politician not breaking their pledges?

There were, though, gleanings to be picked out. Firstly, Mr Hammond isn’t as dull as might be expected.

Secondly, the deficit – the difference between the Government’s income and its expenditure – will still be £17bn in 2021-22 even though the previous Chancellor pledged to wipe it out by 2015. There is no end in sight to austerity.

Thirdly, Mr Hammond found £2bn for social care and £100m for extra triage doctors in casualty, thus addressing the biggest ill of the day. It was, though, just a bit of tinkering rather than a profound rethinking. Mr Hammond must hope his new money filters through before next winter because for other increase in NHS spending, he is relying on efficiencies from the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans – these are the plans disliked by local communities across North Yorkshire, Darlington and Durham which will see services centralised away from local hospitals.

Fourthly, despite fears that education will be the next to feel fallout from cutbacks, the Government is to push on in spending money creating new schools. This seems to be Theresa May’s big idea with extremely little support in the country. Post-Budget reaction from the Institute of Directors put it succinctly: “The focus on grammar and free schools is an unnecessary distraction of Government’s time and resources. Efforts would be better spent reducing class sizes and boosting the number of teachers in shortage subject areas, especially foreign languages, science and maths - subjects that will be key sources of jobs growth in a global trading post-Brexit Britain.”

Brexit, of course, was the backdrop to the Budget, and all of Mr Hammond’s spreadsheets and statistics do not matter if trade deals fail to materialise. Brexit may work well, but the country is holding its breath.

The Budget was also about the threadbare Opposition. The loudest barracking Mr Hammond received was not from the Labour benches but from his own Prime Minister behind him. With a smile on his face, in contrast to the sullen, glum glances on Jeremy Corbyn’s side, Mr Hammond said: “I am delighted to use the occasion of International Women’s Day to announce three additional measures – well now, not quite announce, because the Prime Minister has already announced two of them.”

And Mrs May heckled loudly: “It is International Women’s Day.”

Labour was unable to raise a jeer. Following the Conservatives’ victory in the Copeland by-election, Mr Hammond taunted: “We are the party of the NHS.”

Because Labour has been unable to prove that it is cuts that have pushed the NHS to crisis, Mr Hammond only need to find a £2bn sticking plaster and then hope it goes away by next winter; because Labour is unable to explain the inadequacies of Conservative education policy as fluently as the Institute of Directors, Mr Hammond can press on; because of all this, Labour is 18 points behind in the polls and William Hague is calling for an immediate election in the certainty of a large Conservative victory.

And so it was an appropriately thin Budget for our thin times.