Economic Bounce Back Cannot Be A One-Hit Wonder

It hasn' taken long for the Conservative Party to become comfortable with the notion of spending eyewatering sums of money.

- Kate Andrews

It hasn't taken long for the Conservative Party to become comfortable with the notion of spending eyewatering sums of money. Just ask the Labour Party, which saw the Tories take a 13-point lead in last week’s YouGov poll, after Rishi Sunak announced his Budget in full.

A wildly successful vaccine rollout and hopeful roadmap, and yes, more spending sprees, give Labour very little room to manoeuvre: what can they bring to the table that’s currently not on offer?

Snap polls years before an election don’t tell us much about a party’s future prospects. What they do highlight is an ideological shift that has taken place during the Covid crisis: increasing the appetite of the public for a bigger, more active state.

Not so long ago, a Tory Chancellor who announced Budget tax hikes and another year of record borrowing would face a severe backlash from backbenchers and the grassroots. Instead, Sunak has been met with broad support from his party, who have come to accept that this is the new normal – for some time, anyway.

There are varying degrees of scepticism about the Tories’ new love for splashing the cash. The problem isn’t the emergency measures, or Covid relief such as furlough, or grants for business, which virtually everyone agrees have been necessary. It’s the day-to-day spending and non-Covid related projects that are also racking up.