Analysis: PM has a long list of spending plans but chancellor is concerned about borrowing
Publication of the government’s blueprint to hit net zero by 2050 has opened up a rift between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak over spending.
The chancellor is concerned on many levels about the prime minister’s tendency to believe that “everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”, a phrase Voltaire used in his novel Candide to lampoon the optimists of mid-18th-century France. According to Treasury insiders, Johnson is far too sanguine about Britain’s ability to emerge from the pandemic and tackle the climate emergency without meticulous planning and careful management of the public finances.
