Have the Tories ditched Thatcherism in favour of big spending?
Rishi Sunak’s Budget includes plans to splash the cash – but tax cuts also on cards
Record tax and spending increases in Rishi Sunak’s newly unveiled Budget represent a major “shift” in Tory philosophy, a Treasury minister has said.
The chancellor yesterday announced a £150bn boost for government departments, while “taxes are rising to their highest level as a percentage of GDP since the 1950s”, Sunak said. “I don’t like it, but I cannot apologise for it, it’s the result of the unprecedented crisis we faced and the extraordinary action we took in response,” he told MPs, in a reference to the Covid pandemic.
That message was echoed by Treasury Secretary Simon Clarke. Although the Tories have traditionally tried to cut taxes and keep spending down, Clarke told BBC's Newsnight that he made “no apologies” for increasing public spending.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Thatcherism has been “dumped and replaced” by “ruthless pragmatism”, declared Paul Waugh, chief political commentator for the i news site. This “new Tory politics is driven by the new Tory coalition, with northern and Midland seats as important as true blue southern heartlands”, he argued.
Those who say this is not a proper Tory government “may have a point”, agreed Quentin Letts in The Times, after MPs “cheered a rise in duty on full-bottomed clarets but a cut in the price of rose”.
“Pink wine? Tory grandees used to scorn it as Chateau Mouthwash for home counties hairdressers,” wrote Letts.
The Telegraph’s Allister Heath called Sunak's economic plan a “Labour Budget with a Tory twist and the kind of Spending Review that Gordon Brown would have relished”.
Boris Johnson’s government has “converted to Brownism”, said Heath, adding that Labour “may not be in office, but when it comes to the economy and public spending, they are very much in power”.
Over in the Financial Times, Martin Wolf suggested that Sunak’s “instincts remain those of the Treasury and previous Tory chancellors”, but that his Budget was a “recognition of political realities”.
“Significant reductions in the share of public spending in gross domestic product are impossible,” said Wolf. “This has led to the embrace of what are, by British standards, high taxes and a big state.”
Wolf pointed to the “political impossibility of repeating or even sustaining the squeeze on public spending imposed by George Osborne after the 2008 financial crisis”.
Sunak yesterday made an apparent effort to reassure nervous Conservatives, by telling the Commons that “by the end of this Parliament, I want taxes to be going down not up”.
Tim Bale is convinced that “the Tories will never change”. In an article for UnHerd, the professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London asked whether the “contrast” between the current and previous Tory governments was as “sharp” as has been suggested.
“Few if any” of this administration’s tax rises are “remotely progressive”, he argued, and “while capital spending and infrastructure projects have received an expected boost, day-to-day government spending... is going to be as tight as ever”.
Lloyd Evans in The Spectator also spotted some Thatcherism in yesterday's announcement. The chancellor outlined an increase in spending, but “halfway through the speech came a crunch of gears and a handbrake turn”. Sunak outlined his “personal philosophy” that the state cannot solve every problem.
“It was noticeable that his pearls of wisdom might have come from the teenage diaries of Margaret Thatcher,” added Evans, “but it seems that the real Sunak, the hard-nosed Thatcherite, is being constrained by the precepts of his boss.”
Yet for many, the change of heart is undeniable. Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said that Johnson’s government has set a course for a “high-tax, big-state economy” with a Budget that signals “the end of low-tax conservatism”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The mental health crisis affecting vets
Under The Radar Death of Hampshire vet highlights mental health issues plaguing the industry
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The Onion is having a very ironic laugh with Infowars
The Explainer The satirical newspaper is purchasing the controversial website out of bankruptcy
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'Rahmbo, back from Japan, will be looking for a job? Really?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is Lammy hoping to achieve in China?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary heads to Beijing as Labour seeks cooperation on global challenges and courts opportunities for trade and investment
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Chicago is taking drastic measures to reduce its deficit
In the Spotlight The city is expected to face a budget shortfall of nearly $1 billion in 2025
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Tax plans spell trouble in the North Sea
Talking Point Labour’s tax plans are whipping up a storm. Are the worries of opponents justified?
By The Week UK Published
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published