Budget day has arrived, and it appears Boris Johnson may be sizing up the competition of the man who will be holding the famous red box on the steps of Downing Street.

A senior MP has suggested to the media in recent weeks that Simon Clarke’s (6 foot 7 inches tall) appointment as chief secretary to the Treasury, is a cruel joke by the prime minister, to embarrass the Rishi Sunak (5 ft 6 inches tall) and make him look deliberately small.

In the political world, Sunak is certainly a man of high stature, where he has charted a meteoric rise in politics since becoming chancellor in February 2020. The man behind the furlough scheme is seen as a political rival to Johnson, being tipped by sections of the party as the incumbent PM’s successor.

The only size the chancellor should be worried about is of the monumental job he has on his hands to deliver the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic.