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Philip Hammond is right to resist Theresa May’s demands to continue to spend

The prime minister is expected to announce a pay rise for the public sector next week, but the chancellor is right to restrain her attempt to buy herself a legacy

Friday 19 July 2019 17:20 BST
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Theresa May wanted part of her legacy also to be a significant increase in school spending over several years; instead she will have to settle for a short-term pay settlement
Theresa May wanted part of her legacy also to be a significant increase in school spending over several years; instead she will have to settle for a short-term pay settlement

Is austerity over or not? There were those who advised Theresa May against declaring the end of fiscal stringency in her speech to the Conservative Party conference last year, because it would raise expectations that ran ahead of the economy.

She was in a desperate corner, and so she went ahead, but it did not do her any good. Her failure to take Britain out of the European Union condemned her anyway, and, if there is any easing in the public finances in the next few years, she will not be there to reap the political benefit.

That has not stopped her trying, over the past few weeks, to buy a legacy with public money. On the whole, however, Treasury discipline has held firm. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has resisted her attempts to spend her way into the nation’s affections on their way out of office together.

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