Budget 2021 Live: Rishi Sunak Announces ‘Age of Optimism’ Along with Spending Review | Policy

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good morning. Budget day is always an exciting moment in Westminster, but one of the many unusual characteristics of today’s statement is that Rishi Sunak will present it several weeks after announcing its biggest financial component. The £12 billion health and social care tax unveiled in September was certainly more important than any of the individual tax measures we’ll hear today.

Another advantage of this budget is that it was prompted by an unprecedented amount of advance briefing by the Treasury. We already have 19 press releases on what it will contain.

So, what will make the statement we get this evening significant or memorable? Perhaps there are two aspects that will stand out.

First, do not despair, there will be news. This is a review of spending, as well as a budget, and that means we’ll learn a lot more about departmental spending than we know in the regular budget. Also, for reasons of show, the chancellor will want to have the usual surprise for MPs, and for the country, at the end of his speech. There is a lot of speculation this morning about what it will be and on the Today programme, Andy Burnham, Labor Mayor of Greater Manchester, suggested it could come in the form of an inflection on £20 a week. reduce overall credit.

Second, the overall story that Snack seeks to tell the country will be as important or more important than the multiple announcements about taxes and spending. He submitted his first budget in March 2020, but within a week he had virtually had to shred it due to the Covid pandemic, and since it has been dominated by his advisor to deal with that crisis. This will be the first budget he writes that is not dominated by Covid, and looks to a more normal economic environment. It will be a defining moment. Sunak presents himself as a financial conservative, with a photo of Nigel Lawson featured in the study. But he is working with a prime minister whose economic model is more attractive than Milton Friedman, and so the budget will have to resolve those tensions.

As Rowena Mason reports in her Nightly Preview, Sunak will absorb Boris Johnson’s innate reinforcement in his speech by declaring that we are in an age of optimism. Sunak will say:

Today’s budget begins work on preparing for a new post-Covid economy.

An economy with higher wages, higher skills, and increased productivity.

Strong public services, vibrant communities and safer streets.

An economy fit for a new era of optimism.

This is the strongest economy in the future.

For the millions of people facing the rising cost of living, it may seem like nothing else.

Cabinet met at 8:30 this morning, and Sunak briefs his colleagues on the budget. Here is today’s agenda.

12 p.m.: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer in PMQs.

12:30 p.m.: Rishi Sunak delivers the budget.

1.30pm: Office of Budget Responsibility publishes October 2021 economic and financial forecasts

2.30pm GMT: Richard Hughes, Chief of the Office of Budget Responsibility, holds a briefing on the Office of Balance Sheet budget forecasts.

I will be blogging all day long with my colleague, Graeme Wearden. We’ll cover the backlog of the discourse, and the statement itself, then focus on reaction and analysis, trying in particular to identify the little surprises that Sunak may have blurred.

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