CUTS are coming as Labour ministers flounder in the face of mounting pressure from financial speculators.

With the price of government debt escalating, ministers are on course for renewed austerity even as they squirm to avoid using the term.

As the wriggle room Chancellor Rachel Reeves tried to give herself in last autumn’s Budget evaporates under the impact of rising interest payments, her deputy Darren Jones was forced to come to the Commons to defend the government’s record.