Will Jeremy Hunt have scope to deliver more tax cuts before the next election? Tory MPs certainly hope so, as cuts to employee National Insurance in last year’s Autumn Statement and this month’s Budget have yet to move the polls. Something like an income tax cut, they think, would be preferable. But this morning’s update from the Office for National Statistics is an uncomfortable reminder that those kinds of tax cuts are hard to deliver: for as much as the government insists it wants to bring down the tax burden, it likes to spend money too.
Public sector net borrowing in February was £8.4 billion – significantly higher than the consensus of £5.8 billion. While some costs came in lower than the year before – debt servicing payments were £1.1 billion lower last month than they were in 2023 – those costs still remain significantly elevated from where they were before 2022.
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