19 May 2020updated 06 Oct 2020 9:45am

The Covid-19 crisis will force the UK to rewrite the economic rulebook

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 06: A general view of the boarded-up Oxford Street branch of the department store Debenhams on April 06, 2020 in London, England. The department store chain was already struggling prior to the COVID-19 outbreak and it has not said how many of its stores will reopen when quarantine measures are eased. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

There is a growing anti-austerity consensus across the poltiical spectrum, making the options set out by the Treasury (and leaked to the Telegraph) appear dated according to James Meadway.

Figures such as George Osborne, he writes, are “lonely” in continuing to advocate 2010-style cuts to public spending. Meadway goes on to examine the emerging factions within the Conservative Party, ranging from those committed to investment in a green economy through to “a noisy free-market faction is demanding Trump-style tax cuts irrespective of the borrowing involved”.

The debate on the economic response also reveals, he says, the diminshed power and role of the Treasury, something that started before the current crisis. The opposition, on the other hand, could take this opportunity while the Conservative government considers its response, to follow New Zealand and its “wellbeing budget”.

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