James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ending austerity won’t be as simple as May made it sound

It was the line in her conference speech that demonstrated Theresa May’s desire to stay on as Prime Minister after Brexit. But it was also the line that will cause her the most trouble.

I say in The Sun this morning that May’s declaration that austerity is over will cause problems even if the Tories couldn’t have fought another election on austerity.

First of all, they have already pledged to spend an extra £20 billion on the NHS. At the time, many senior Tories regarded this as the party making a choice to spend ‘the proceeds of growth’ on the health service. But by now announcing the end of austerity, May has suggested that the taps will be turned on elsewhere too.

The problem is that even before May’s speech, Hammond was saying that the country is going to need to pay a ‘little more tax’ just to cover the increase in NHS spending.

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