RISHI REVIVES THATCHERISM TO RESCUE UK

PM follows the Iron Lady's recession playbook of tax hikes and spending cuts

-  Jonathan Walker

RISHI SUNAK will invoke the spirit of Margaret Thatcher this week as he unveils his plan to rescue Britain's ailing economy.

The PM will warn "there is no alternative" to the eye-watering package of tax hikes and spending cuts to be announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The phrase was used by Lady Thatcher when she began her battle with inflation in 1980.

MPs are braced for cuts to police, education and council budgets to fill a £55billion black hole in public finances. But Mr Hunt, who delivers his autumn statement on Thursday, warned colleagues it is the "only way" to tackle the scourge of inflation.

"Iron Lady" Mrs Thatcher faced a similarly bleak economic outlook, declaring: "There is no easy popularity in this, but it's fundamentally sound."

CHANCELLOR Jeremy Hunt will follow in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher this week and insist there is no alternative” to huge tax rises and swingeing spending cuts.

Comparing himself to the lead character from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, he insisted: I’m Scrooge who’s going to do things that make sure Christmas is never cancelled.”

Backed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he is preparing to pile misery on to voters in Thursday’s autumn statement, with stealth tax increases and cuts to police, education and council budgets designed to fill a 55billion black hole in public finances.

Margaret Thatcher famously told critics there is no alternative” when she introduced tough measures to rebuild the UK’s crumbling economy after becoming PM in 1979. And in an interview last night, Mr Hunt said: I grew up in the 1980s and saw how Margaret Thatcher changed the course of this country’s history, because she was prepared to take difficult decisions.”