Philip Hammond and John McDonnell go head-to-head – but are we any clearer on Brexit?

This morning’s Marr show was something of a financial matter, with the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell sharing the sofa. As Andrew Marr pointed out, having the pair of Chancellors share a sofa is a ‘great tradition’, but one that had a stop put to it when George Osborne was in charge. Now the tradition has come back – but it this morning’s performance might be a good example of why Osborne chose to put a stop to it in the first place. The general consensus seems to be that McDonnell came out on top – with commenters saying that he ran rings around Hammond. Naturally, lots of the talk was about Brexit. But Hammond stayed fairly quiet on the topic, refusing to reveal the government’s negotiating cards. Was there anything new? He confirmed that the government ‘want European worked and European firms to have continued access to the UK’s market’ – hardly anything groundbreaking – and accepted that the EU are punishing the UK for the Brexit vote.  But on the whole, he kept his cards very close to his chest. In this week’s magazine, James Forsyth writes that the Chancellor must avoid being ‘Eeyorish’ and stop playing down Britain’s prospects. Did he take heed this morning? Well, to a certain extent. Yes, the Chancellor was certainly dull. He admitted that Brexit would mean a ‘sharp challenge’ to public finances, and that negotiations surrounding the EU would be both tough and long. It would be a bit rich to say that he was optimistic – but he did at least accept that both opportunities and potential benefits could emerge from the Brexit vote. Perhaps the most interesting thing to emerge from the interview was McDonnell accusing Hammond of having fractures within his party. Considering the state of the Labour party right now, I would have thought that party fractures were something Labour might be wise to avoid mentioning.