Sunak offers jam today in spending review as Covid deficit spreads

Analysis: Public sector and foreign aid face cuts, but the chancellor dodged tough decisions

• Record peacetime borrowing to combat downturn
• Spending review: key points at a glance

Jam tomorrow but no jam today. As devotees of Lewis Carroll know, that was the credo of the White Queen in Alice Through the Looking-Glass.

Plenty of chancellors of the exchequers have adopted the frugal White Queen approach but so far Rishi Sunak has not been one of them. He has spent an extra 280bn since the Covid-19 crisis began and is on course to preside over a budget deficit of 394bn this year - comfortably a peacetime record.

Related: Spending review 2020: Rishi Sunak's key points at a glance