Our future spending could return us to the past
Boris Johnson's failure to give "rigorous regard" to how projects are funded goes far beyond the question of his curtains
1 June 2021 • 7:00am
Lord Geidt, the new independent adviser on ministerial interests, cleared Boris Johnson of impropriety over his now-famous wallpaper. He added, however, that “The Prime Minister – unwisely, in my view – allowed the refurbishment of the apartment at No 11 Downing Street to proceed without more rigorous regard for how this would be funded.”
I feel this gem of a sentence should be applied to the Prime Minister’s economic policy as a whole. It is not improper for him to borrow and spend mind-boggling billions on every exciting project that takes his fancy. It may even – given the unique circumstances of Covid – be right to spend big. But Boris is surely unwise, as Lord Geidt puts it, “to proceed without more rigorous regard for how this [whatever project it might be] would be funded”.