IFS urges Rishi Sunak to raise taxes in budget to fund spending spree

Thinktank says taxes hike in budget needed or chancellor risks breaking borrowing rules

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, faces a tough choice at next month's budget between raising taxes, entrenching austerity or abandoning Tory manifesto promises on government borrowing, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The tax and spending thinktank said the government was on-track to ramp up borrowing to about 63bn next year - 23bn more than the most recent official forecasts - amid a rapid increase in spending under Boris Johnson.