The Chancellor will be in China this weekend. After that, Rachel Reeves will be in Davos, lecturing the global elite about how “stability” has made the UK a great place to invest.

Rising UK borrowing costs raise risk that chancellor will have to impose tighter fiscal policy as soon as March

Rachel Reeves is facing her first major test since becoming Britain's finance minister after a jump in the government's borrowing costs this week and a deepening of the pound's losses on Thursday, potentially forcing her to cut future spending.

As any football fan knows, statements of support from the board are rarely followed by good news. As in football, so in finance, and the Treasury’s attempt to dismiss as “pure speculation” the suggestion that yields on Government debt spiking to their highest level since 2008 could put Chancellor Rachel Reeves in breach of her own fiscal rules do not seem likely to inspire confidence.