Coronavirus has taken centre stage just as Boris Johnson was hoping to start his show

The prime minister wants to use the Budget to show he is delivering on the promises of his election campaign, Andrew Woodcock says

Johnson’s targets on social care are expected to take a hit in the Budget due to coronavirus (Reuters)

The emergence of the coronavirus outbreak has forced the government to revise its priorities at precisely the moment when Boris Johnson was hoping to establish a positive narrative for his new administration.

Wednesday’s Budget was intended to draw a line under years of austerity following the financial crisis and “lay the foundations for a decade of growth” with major investment in infrastructure in “left behind” areas of the midlands and north of England, which switched from Labour to the Tories in the general election.

Instead, it will take place under the shadow of a novel and potentially fatal virus that emerged from a little-known mega-city in central China and has spread around the world at breakneck speed.