LONDON - Mr Rishi Sunak will next week begin grappling with Britain's most challenging fiscal blowout since World War II, in what will ultimately become the defining test of his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
"The Chancellor faces a cat's cradle of competing pressures," said Mr Steve Baker, an influential Conservative who sits on the House of Commons Treasury Committee. "It will provide a progress report on what compromises have been reached between those who say we should seize advantage of historically low interest rates to borrow in order to invest significantly in infrastructure and in R&D, and those who say that it has to be paid for," said Mr David Lidington, who was former prime minister Theresa May's de facto deputy.An infrastructure strategy laying out 100 billion pounds of spending will accompany the review.
But he has also proclaimed a mantra of getting the public finances in order, what he calls a"sacred duty". More on this topic The Chancellor may impose some rigour next week, with a squeeze on pay being considered for some 3.8 million public sector workers who don't work in healthcare.But Mr Sunak's previous attempts to curb expenditure have been stymied.
More on this topic Many such commitments are"permanent increases in the size of the state", said Mr Ben Zaranko, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
You cannot reopen until the virus is under control. By reopening when not under control, it explodes. Restaurants may be open, but less than capacity, because those with common sense who fear Natural Selection are not there. This seems to be difficult to understand.