Is the UK really facing more public sector austerity because of the pandemic?

Boris Johnson in June said he would not return to austerity but with Rishi Sunak now talking of ‘tough choices’ on public spending and a three-year spending review looming, Ben Chu looks at how and why the government’s rhetoric has shifted

The chancellor seems to have watered down his spending commitments (POOL/AFP/Getty)

At a speech in Dudley back in June, Boris Johnson declared his government would not deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic in the same way that George Osborne and David Cameron had reacted to the aftermath of the global financial crisis a decade ago.

“We will not be responding to this crisis with what people called austerity,” the prime minister said.  

“We are not going to try to cheese-pare our way out of trouble because the world has moved on since 2008”.