The tensions between Boris Johnson’s post-pandemic rhetoric and Rishi Sunak’s fiscal constraints are becoming clear
In a speech last June on his vision for post-Covid Britain, Boris Johnson promised to replace the caution of previous governments with a new Tory radicalism. “If we are to recover fully,” he declared, “this Covid crisis is the moment to address the problems in our country that we have failed to address for decades.”
Reform of social care, which had been “flunked” by governments for 30 years, would be tackled swiftly and boldly. There would also be more cash for the NHS, the education system and other public services which had been terribly hit – and exposed as unfit for the 21st century – by Covid. “We will not be responding to this crisis with what people call austerity. We are not going to cheese pare our way out of trouble,” he declared.
