It is a measure of the tension that surrounded Theresa May and Philip Hammond as they approached last week’s budget that even when the announcements seemed to go well, some allies of the chancellor were reluctant to believe it was possible. On Thursday, the day after Hammond appeared to have saved the government’s credibility — and with it his own career — there was a relaxed mood in No 10.

“It has landed well,” one of May’s aides said to a close ally of the chancellor.

Fearing that Hammond could yet seize defeat from the jaws of victory, the Treasury official replied: “Don’t say that; he’s still got two hours of opening his mouth.”

In the end the chancellor avoided the kind of gaffe that