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Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered what he called a ‘Budget for growth’. He abolished the cap on savings for tax-free pensions and promised help with childcare costs. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast a fall in inflation to 2.9 cent by the end of 2023 and a fall in GDP of 0.2 per cent. Twelve regions for new investment zones were named. Corporation tax would rise to 25 per cent but for small businesses capital expenditure would be tax deductible. Nuclear power and quantum computing would be encouraged; back pain and mental health problems discouraged. The pothole fund would grow. Holyhead Breakwater would benefit. Duty on alcohol went up, but duty on draught products in pubs would be less. Fuel duty remained frozen; subsidy of domestic energy bills would continue to the end of June. Defence spending would be nearly 2.25 per cent by 2025. The nine million cats in Britain must be microchipped by June.

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, agreed to pay France £500 million to help stop migration in small boats across the Channel; in Paris he met President Emmanuel Macron, who rubbed his back in greeting. The government announced an ‘aspiration’ to invest 2.5 per cent of national income in defence, but would not say when. Britain was plunged into a week of ceaseless chatter when Gary Lineker was stopped from presenting an edition of Match of the Day after the BBC found his ‘recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines’. In a tweet the presenter had likened the language used by the government to set out its migration policy to ‘that used by Germany in the Thirties’. As other presenters downed tools, Match of the Day went ahead without punditry, and attracted 2.58 million viewers, half a million more than usual; 64 million of the population did not watch it. Mr Lineker was tempted back by the promise of an inquiry to look at guidelines afresh.

Hospital doctors below the rank of consultant went on strike for three days, joined by teachers and London Underground drivers. Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, would not be ‘wise’ to nominate his father for a knighthood, Robert Jenrick, a Home Office minister, said. Police confirmed that a crashed car in Cardiff with five people in it was not found for 46 hours despite a report of missing persons being made after 17 hours; two were still alive. Eleanor Williams, aged 22, of Barrow-in-Furness, was jailed for eight years for falsely claiming she was raped and trafficked by an Asian grooming gang. Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, was told by the Cabinet Office of a risk of ‘damaging national security’ if he cast doubt in his memoirs on the coincidental nature of the Covid virus being discovered close to a government science lab in Wuhan, according to the Daily Telegraph. Prince Edward was made Duke of Edinburgh, but his dukedom will not be heritable.

Abroad

Regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank in the largest failure of a US bank since 2008. The New York-based Signature Bank also failed. The US government guaranteed deposits. Silicon Valley Bank’s UK subsidiary was bought by HSBC for a pound. The bank crisis then hit Credit Suisse. Mr Sunak visited America to finalise an agreement to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines under the 2021 Aukus pact counter to China’s threat in the Indo-Pacific region.

Russia, after a lull of three weeks, fired 81 missiles, including six Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles, at infrastructure targets in Ukraine, leaving four regions with emergency power cuts. An American drone crashed into the Black Sea following an encounter with Russian fighter jets. Russia and Ukraine suffered heavy loss of life in the battle for the city of Bakhmut. Xi Jinping, the ruler of China, planned to visit Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, having spoken first with President Zelensky. China issued visas to foreign tourists for the first time since the Covid pandemic broke out. Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to re-establish relations after four days of secret talks in Beijing. Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco announced a record profit of £134 billion for 2022. Italian coastguards brought to safety more than 1,000 migrants from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party, visited Washington; President Joe Biden of the United States said he would visit Northern Ireland in April. Dick Fosbury, the American high-jumper who invented the Fosbury Flop, died aged 76.