George Osborne had two key political messages in his Autumn statement, and they sit uneasily together.

First, he wanted us to know that the Government’s economic strategy is working. The economy is growing, employment is up and the deficit might actually start to come down at some point in the near future.

At the same time, he wanted to stress that the recovery was fragile - and could go wrong at any time.

That’s why, the argument goes, Britain has to stick to a Conservative-led Government willing to make tough decisions. Letting Labour back into power would be a massive gamble that could bring the economy crashing back down again.

But his statement also contained a number of measures designed to help households and smaller businesses with the cost of living - which were in fact inspired by Labour.

Hence, Mr Osborne promised to do something about rising fuel bills and to cut taxes for community businesses, often family-owned, such as newsagents and pubs - just as Labour leader Ed Miliband did during Labour’s annual conference earlier in the year.

The second major theme in the new policy announcements was a drive to do something about youth unemployment.

This included a stick, making it harder for young people to claim unemployment benefits if they were not in training.

But there was also a tasty carrot for employers as, in one of the few announcements not deliberately leaked in advance of the statement, Mr Osborne announced he was abolishing employer National Insurance contributions paid by employers for staff under the age of 21 earning less than £42,285.

This will save firms £1,000 for an employee earning £16,000, he said.

The political message was clear in his opening remarks, as he told the Commons: “Britain’s economic plan is working. But the job is not done.

“We need to secure the economy for the long term, and the biggest risk to that comes from those who would abandon the plan.”

The economy is expected to grow by 1.4 per cent this year and 2.4 per cent next year, he said.

The number of people working is also at an all-time high (although this does not mean unemployment is at an all time low - far from it).

And by 2018-19, the UK may actually stop abolish the deficit and start running a small surplus. In the meantime though, we’re still borrowing £111 billion a year.

Announcements to help with the cost of living , including support for the smallest businesses, included:

* Providing funding to expand free school meals to all school children in reception, year 1 and year 2 - a Liberal Democrat policy

* Cutting “green” levies on fuel bills to save £50 from the average household bill

* Freezing fuel duty for another year

* Helping small businesses by giving every property with a rateable value below £50,000 a £1,000 discount on business rates

Measures to help young people find work included:

* Removing national insurance contributions on a million and a half jobs for young people.

* Ensuring anyone aged 18 to 21 claiming unemployment benefit without “basic skills” does training. And ordering young people unemployed for six months to “start a traineeship, take work experience or do a community work placement”, or lose their benefits

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A major theme was a drive to do something about youth unemployment.

And then there were measures that the Chancellor might class as “difficult decisions” - the type Labour are supposedly incapable of making. They include:

* Cutting departmental spending by another £1 billion a year over the next two years

* Bringing forward plans to increase the state pension age - up to 68 in the mid 2030s and to 69 in the late 2040s.

Will all this help the economy? Birmingham Chamber of Commerce was fairly positive in its initial response to the speech, but Chamber President Tim Pile warned: “The general headlines about the improvement of the economy and GDP are welcome but if we dig down we are still not doing enough to tackle the north-south divide.”

But Mr Osborne also has a second concern. Will his statement help the Conservatives win the next election?