The scenes triggered panic in the markets and warnings that the jump in borrowing costs – if sustained until the autumn – would knock £3 billion off the Chancellor’s wafer-thin £9.9 billion buffer to balance the books. Alex Kerr, of Capital Economics, suggested that another tax raid was on the way. He said: “Combined with the about-turns on welfare spending and winter fuel payments, which will cost around £6 billion, that leaves the Chancellor’s headroom pretty much wiped out at just under £1 billion. “That’s before possible downgrades to the OBR’s migration and growth forecasts at the autumn Budget.”