23 Jan 2021
Britain’s chancellor wants to “wean us off the magic money tree” after nearly a year of unprecedented spending in response to the coronavirus lockdown, a policy which saw government borrowing rise by a near-record £34 billion in December alone.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom, has opened the taps of public spending since the government started shutting down the economy last year. The Conservative party MP is expected to want to start paying for it in the forthcoming March budget statement with new taxes.
Government borrowing from April to December — the financial year so far, and broadly the time in which the government has been borrowing for coronavirus-related reasons — rose by £271 billion, pushed by December’s borrowing of £34 billion. The