What a disappointment: last-minute benefit cuts are looming because the Chancellor can’t do her sums.

Or so we’re being told.

It’s only a couple of days since the scaremongers told us Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson had offered to axe universal free school meals for infant school pupils – on which some pundits claimed the politicians may have been suggesting a particularly nasty cut in order to make what was actually to come seem more palatable.

Now we know the wind is blowing the other way. We’re going to get something worse.

And here’s what is really hard to swallow: Rachel Reeves [pictured] probably had the extra cuts in mind all along.

It seems highly unlikely that, after the Office for Budgetary Responsibility told her she would not make her £5 billion saving on sickness and disability benefits with the cuts that have already been announced, she just magicked up £1.4 billion more.

Given what was said about the Phillipson suggestion, I think Reeves had these cuts planned before the OBR said the cuts announced last week by Liz Kendall would only bring in £3.4 billion.

This makes sense because the Kendall cuts had already upset Labour’s own MPs. The situation today smacks of pacing; Labour’s leaders have delayed revealing the true depth of the damage they are planning in a bid to avoid a full-scale rebellion.

As a member of the public, I am now looking at Reeves, Kendall, Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting and all the other gremlins in the government in terms of what they have been doing, rather than what they say – because it is clear that their words have no credibility at all.

Labour swept in on a landslide (albeit fuelled by the lowest election turnout ever, as a proportion of the electorate) in which the promise was “Change” for the better.

Instead, the vast majority of us have had nothing but cuts, while the rich and powerful have enjoyed more tax breaks and preferential treatment.

It seems clear that while we were promised a Labour government, we got nothing more than Continuity Tories.