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The chancellor has been talking about “necessary choices” around next month’s budget in an article for The Guardian. Rachel Reeves says she needs to be “candid” and doesn’t want to “simply accept” forecasts – but to “defy them”.

With four weeks to go, Sam Coates and Anne McElvoy ponder what she might be up to – and how she might fill a black hole coming in above £30bn. Will Labour manifesto pledges be breached?

Elsewhere, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chooses a Labour veteran to lead the party’s election campaigns next year. Lord Spencer Livermore will take on the task.