I DON’T envy Philip Hammond. Next week’s Budget has the potential to sow serious division in the UK Government. As a pro-Europe MP in the Conservative party, Hammond has made an enemy of himself amongst some of the more evangelical hard-line Brexiteers.

Leave.eu has started a campaign to have him deselected as a Conservative Party candidate, should there be another election. From the Tory benches there’s pressure to pull some kind of bold and ambitious spending plan out of the hat, to prove that he’s dedicated to making a success out of Brexit.

The Budget could be voted down if fewer than 10 Tory MPs rebel against the Government. If ever there was an opportunity for a coup over Brexit, this could be it. Once again, internal divisions are spilling out of the Tory party and into the lives of ordinary people who will be affected by policies made not in their own best interests, but to appease the far right of the party in government.

Hammond will be desperate to get this right. But what options has he got? There’s not a great deal of room to manoeuvre – the budget deficit is still £50 billion, despite seven years of ill-advised austerity. Sluggish wage growth coupled with high inflation means a squeeze on consumer spending. Productivity is low and Brexit is looming ominously on the horizon. Hammond’s instinct will be to proceed with caution, but one wrong move might be enough to collapse the house of cards.

My prediction is that the Chancellor will play it safe and avoid anything contentious. It’s most likely he’ll announce some policies aimed at winning back Labour swing voters – some legislation on tax avoidance perhaps, or a cut in stamp duty for first-time homeowners.

It seems the Chancellor is stuck between a rock and a hard Brexit. You can guarantee it will be ordinary people who suffer the consequences as wages are squeezed further, investment is lost, and a government sleeps at the wheel, preoccupied with internal party politics.

People in Scotland who didn’t vote for Brexit and certainly didn’t vote for a Tory government will pay the price for the economic turmoil that will ensue after the UK leaves the European Union.

While the UK Government can justify ignoring the democratically expressed will of an entire nation, they can find exemptions where it’s convenient: no special deal would be possible for Scotland, we were told, but David Davis this week announced that there would be a special City of London travel regime to protect the banking sector.

How long this government will last is anybody’s guess – but what is certain is that Scotland’s future will always be more secure in the hands of Scotland’s people.