Once again in his still short chancellorship, Rishi Sunak was stood at the dispatch box facing down economic catastrophe.

But this time he was also facing another catastrophe — a political one.

Wednesday’s Sue Gray report into Downing Street parties may not have been the bombshell that some had expected it to be, but it raised several thorny questions the government has not fully answered.

In a 22-minute speech, the chancellor unveiled a £15billion package of support which may have eased pressure on both fronts.

The package will see every household receive a £400 reduction on their energy bills and will take the support for the eight million poorest households up to a total of £1,200.

At the same time, it will see the government feature in positive headlines.

No-one can deny the financial support is much needed by many. And that it was morally the right thing for any government, with a responsibility to look after its citizens, to do.

However, it was also a carefully politically crafted package of measures.

During the entirety of the speech, the chancellor did not refer to the new tax he was using to fund the tranche of measures as a ‘windfall tax’.

Instead, he studiously avoided the term and described the plan for a new 25% tax on energy profits as a “temporary, targeted, Energy Profits Levy”.

He had a good political reason for doing so.

Admitting the government was planning a windfall tax would mean admitting it was U-turning and assuming one of the opposition’s key cost-of-living policies.

But the government has done more than U-turn – it has outflanked its opposition.

The support on offer will go further than the support the Labour proposed in January. In fact, it is almost exactly double what Labour offered in January.

As one prominent journalist wrote on Twitter, Sunak has gazumped Keir Starmer and the Labour party.

But more than this, it has – to an extent – turned traditional party politics on its head.

Coming one day after the publication of the scathing partygate report, many viewed the timing of the announcement with suspicion that it was aimed at shoring up increasingly shaky political support.

And it may have done so among people who are not usually Tory voters.

According to calculations by the Resolution Foundation think-tank, the poorest fifth of households looks set to gain an average £823, compared with £500 for the middle fifth of households, and £296 across the richest fifth.

At the same time, the Labour party appears to have placed adverts on the ConservativeHome website – typically read by party members – showing an exhausted-looking woman wearing PPE and bearing a block capital message which reads: “Look into her eyes and tell her you still back Boris Johnson”.

Perhaps none of this matters and the timing was purely incidental.

Or perhaps it signifies a wider, slower shift in British politics.

During his speech announcing the package, the chancellor said: “As ever, there is a sensible middle ground.

“We should not be ideological about this…we should be pragmatic.”

And he is right. On some matters, the Tory party and the Labour party are moving closer together.

One backbench MP said the chancellor was: “Throwing red meat to socialists by raising taxes on businesses and telling them where to invest their money is not the Conservative way of encouraging those who create our prosperity and jobs to do just that.”

Whether Conservative MPs like it or not, both parties are currently parties of high taxes.

And during such difficult economic times, the money is being used to protect people from the crushing poverty that the cost-of-living crisis means otherwise.