Chancellor’s Budgets are always a high wire balancing act, with the office incumbent having to give here and take there to offset the nation's finances.

But Rishi Sunak, who is comparatively very new in politics for the holder of one of the great offices of state, has a tougher acrobatic challenge in next week’s Spring Statement than most.

He was ‘Mr Popular’ when he was doling out the nation's cash in the form of much-needed relief from the effects of the pandemic, but much less so now when action needs to be taken to reduce UK debt that paid for his previous ‘largesse.’

But what he will present next Wednesday is a rosier picture of the UK’s finances than was previously expected – good news, but news that will very much add to the political pressure on him to deal with the worst cost of living crisis for decades.

The level of tax revenue taking into the Treasury’s coffers for the financial year ending March means that public borrowing will in fact be lower than the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted in October.

The UK financial watchdog said then it expected borrowing to be £183bn but it is expected to be about £160bn, following greater tax receipts as businesses bounced back better from the pandemic than expected.

Cue greater pressure with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer telling the Financial Times that if the chancellor chose to “sit on his hands” at the Spring Statement it would “send a strong signal to the British public about the lack of priority he gives to their real financial concerns”.

Will he respond to the pressure in measures including following France, the Netherlands and Ireland by cutting duty on fuel? Mr Sunak pointed out to Conservative MPs on Monday that the 20pc fall in the oil price would ease things but remained tight-lipped on whether he would cut duty.

He could take such action or claim prudence by leaving things until the autumn when the international security situation may be clearer.

But the political calculation he and Boris Johnson will be weighing up is what measure to introduce now and what fire power to keep to be able to introduce a tax cut in time for the next general election.