Rishi Sunak pumped another £30 billion into the economy yesterday as it was revealed that the bill for government support since the pandemic now dwarfs last year’s health spending.
The job-saving package of tax breaks, consumer discounts and wage subsidies means that the chancellor has announced plans to spend up to £188.7 billion on tackling the immediate crisis and nursing the economy through its effects.
That equates to 9.4 per cent of GDP and far exceeds other Whitehall budgets. Health and social care spending in 2019-20 was £140 billion, for example, of which NHS day-to-day spending in England was £120 billion.
A further £122 billion in the form of loans and deferred taxes has been injected into the economy since the start of the
