The Guardian view on The Guardian view on Boris Johnson’s budget: we are all Keynesians now | Editorial
Rishi Sunak's first budget reveals a politician who will not squander the opportunity presented by a crisis. The Conservative chancellor has acted to shore up confidence in the economy by rolling out a series of emergency spending measures to support households and businesses in the wake of the global coronavirus outbreak. But he has also signalled a new direction of government economic policy. Mr Sunak used his first of three fiscal events this year to talk up the government's agenda and send a message that it would not hesitate to use the state. What Mr Sunak wanted voters to hear is that this is a big-spending, big-borrowing administration, which in terms of real spending per person aims to reverse a decade of cuts by the time of the next election.
This change of attitude and the talk of strengthening the safety net to deal with an emergency is a refreshing change for the better. Mr Sunak is correct in sensing that the public won't indulge Tory state-shrinking instincts. The chancellor is a welcome convert to the idea that the Treasury must borrow to invest with a view to lifting the growth rate of the economy. The cash injection is required to keep the economy expanding, not least because Brexit shrunk it by 2%. What once was seen as heresy is now a tenet of the Johnsonian faith. The impression, left by Mr Sunak, is that we are all Keynesians now. To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, never has the road to Damascus been so congested. Mrs Thatcher was crowing in 1996 after four Labour defeats. There can be little satisfaction for Labour in winning the economic argument, only to see the Tories stealing its ideas after four electoral losses.
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