The Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has said he is "turning the page on austerity" and has promised huge increases in government spending with an election thought to be only weeks away.
Mr Javid said: "A new economic era needs a new economic plan and today we lay the foundations with the fastest increase in day-to-day spending in 15 years.”
— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) September 4, 2019
He announced an extra £2.2 billion in defence spending, £2 billion for the National Health Service, £750 million to recruit 20,000 new police officers, £7.1 billion on schools and £54 million on homelessness.
Mr Javid, who took over from Phillip Hammond - now a Tory rebel - in the summer when Mr Johnson replaced Theresa May in 10 Downing Street.
He offered £13 billion in extra spending and promised an "infrastructure revolution".
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) September 4, 2019
Mr Javid, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, said Britain had cut its budget deficit from 10 percent of gross domestic product in 2010 to just over one percent.
But critics say the extra spending is an attempt to bribe voters at the upcoming general election, which Mr Johnson is pushing for.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 4, 2019
The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, said Mr Javid’s speech was “a compendium of meaningless platitudes” and he said he suspected it was written by the Downing Street spin doctor Dominic Cummings.
He criticises Mr Cummings for sacking a Treasury aide and having her escorted out of Downing Street by an armed police officer.
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) September 4, 2019
Mr McDonnell said it was not a real spending review but “grubby electioneering.”
He said the Tories had been in power - including the coalition - since 2010 but said “this government will not be forgiven, but will soon be forgotten.”
