Rishi Sunak’s government has set the country on course for a “more painful” austerity drive after the next general election than during the decade of belt-tightening under George Osborne, leading economists have warned.
A day after the chancellor’s autumn statement, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said Jeremy Hunt’s £20bn package of tax cuts was almost entirely funded by swingeing real-terms reductions to public spending planned from 2025.
