Chancellor John Healey delivers his first Budget on 28 October, and the timing is awkward. A global bond sell-off – tied partly to a fresh flare-up between the US and Iran and rising oil and gas prices – has pushed up borrowing costs across the UK, US, Japan and the eurozone. For the Treasury, that means a bigger bill just to service existing debt, at the exact moment Healey is trying to work out how to pay for defence, the cost of living and everything else Labour has promised since taking office in July.
