Rishi Sunak says borrowing is ‘immoral’ – but he doesn’t mean it

The chancellor wants to avoid putting up taxes and cutting spending for as long as he possibly can, writes John Rentoul

For a long time, the chancellor can avoid making it clear where he really stands by postponing the hard decisions (AFP/Getty)

Rishi Sunak has finally got round to putting up some new pictures in the chancellor’s office in the Treasury, and he has chosen portraits of three of his predecessors: Hugh Gaitskell, William Gladstone and Nigel Lawson.  

Each is significant. Gaitskell “was at the same school as me”, Sunak told The Spectator in an interview published today. “As a Labour chancellor he was sceptical about European integration, he was pro the nuclear deterrent and he wanted to abolish Clause IV. So what’s not to like?”

Gladstone was “a great free-trader and super fiscally conservative,” said Sunak: “both things that I want to emulate”. And Lawson “intellectually dominated his time as a tax-reforming chancellor”.