The Chancellor is under intensifying pressure after insiders admitted the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is poised to downgrade productivity forecasts. According to senior officials, the Treasury is now “frantically working” on options to fill the gap, which could mean breaking Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise income tax, VAT, or National Insurance. Together with last year’s £40bn tax raid, Reeves may soon preside over a staggering £70bn rise in the overall tax burden in just over a year. A fresh freeze on income tax thresholds, extended by another two years, could quietly drain £7.5bn more from pay packets. The backdrop to Reeves’s Budget dilemma is worsening by the week.