Although Philip Hammond’s spending splurge Budget has received broadly positive front pages and a cautious thumbs up from the public, the Chancellor has been given a reality check by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). After crunching the numbers, IFS director Paul Johnson has concluded that Hammond had ‘gambled’ on the public finances. Johnson said that the Chancellor ought to be ‘thanking his lucky stars’ for his £12billion windfall from a revised public borrowing forecast. With no plan set out for how to fund this level of spending in the future, Johnson concluded that ‘inevitable tax increases’ would have to follow in order ‘to pay for our ageing population’.
On the Tory benches, it’s widely accepted that this was a Budget that put off the difficult decisions. But no-one seems that bothered about it.
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