How an earlier independent bomb sustains British power

What changes if Britain sustains its own nuclear programme from 1944 and develops the hydrogen bomb early?

Britain remains a stronger and more independent second Western power, though the United States still holds the leading position.

The counterfactual removes dependence on renewed American nuclear cooperation and gives Britain an atomic weapon by about 1947. Immediate thermonuclear work would reinforce its position as a major power with an independent strategic capability. Britain was not literally bankrupt, and policy choices about debt repayment and post-war construction also shaped its position. The United States would still become the leading Western power, but Britain could remain a more equal second partner at roughly its pre-Suez level of influence.