Ever since Rachel Reeves entered No. 11, it’s been one drama after another. Taxes have soared, borrowing has broken records, spending has threatened to run out of control, and our national debt and deficit look ever more daunting. She inherited a stuttering economy, but almost everything she did made it worse. Her relentless £66billion tax blitz has slowed growth and driven up unemployment. Reckless borrowing spooked the bond markets. Labour backbenches threaten to throw a wobbly at the first mention of spending restraint.

At times, Reeves looked a broken woman. She made life harder for herself with broken promises over tax and so much else. Throwing money at an unproductive public sector was risky, and it’ll take time to see results from all that extra NHS spending, if we ever do. PM Sir Keir Starmer has forced her into a string of U-turns. Critics have repeatedly questioned her credentials. It’s surprising she’s lasted as long as she has.

But she appears to have saved her neck, for now. When she delivers her Spring Statement on 3 March, she may even feel a flicker of satisfaction. Last week, something finally went right, and she’ll take the credit. Yet this rare piece of good news throws down a fresh challenge, which could prove the biggest of the lot.

Britain posted a record £30.4billion budget surplus in January, the biggest since 1993. Tax receipts outstripped spending, and we all know why. Because Reeves has ramped them up to record highs, bringing the economy to a standstill.

Lower debt interest costs helped too, as markets anticipate falling interest rates. Over the first 10 months of the financial year, borrowing totalled £112.1billion. That’s still the fifth highest figure on record, but below the £120.4billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

It’s a mark of how bad things have got that we celebrate a figure that in normal times would terrify us.

The unemployment rate is still soaring. It’s climbed from 4.1% to 5.2% on Reeves’s watch, adding 600,000 to the dole, with two million now seeking work. That’s down to her disastrous £26billion “jobs tax”, and two inflation-busting minimum wage hikes, that have made companies think twice about hiring. Especially younger workers.

Youth unemployment stands at 16.1%, with 739,000 young people out of work. That’s a generational disaster, triggered by Reeves.

Reeves will see still claim that £30billion surplus as vindication. She’ll take the glory, whether she deserves it or not. It boosts her chances of surviving the year as Chancellor, maybe even through to the next election in 2029. A frightening thought.

But success breeds temptation. Left-wing Labour backbenchers will argue the fiscal crisis has eased and it’s time to crack on with some serious spending. They’ll push for even more cash to fight child poverty, boost the NHS, fund even bigger public sector pay deals, back Ed Miliband’s green projects and hike special educational needs budgets, as pressure grows for more defence spending too.

Reeves will try to push back, but her own party will demand she spends, spends and spends again. They’ll want even higher taxes too, on business and wealth, despite the damage inflicted so far.

If she caves in, that windfall could vanish and the bond markets could finally give us up as a lost cause. Reeves has had a stroke of luck. She’d better now blow it now.