Keir Starmer, it’s time we had a frank discussion about tax | Phillip Inman

The opposition leader should address the issue head on: questions about who pays for public services won't go away

Austerity is on its way back to the top of the Conservative party agenda. Forget about levelling up", a skills agenda and a fully functioning welfare state backed by billions of pounds of funding: the scene is set for a three-year spending review that Rishi Sunak has already warned will be extremely tough.

Whitehall departments are braced for yet another round of spending cuts justified by the need to keep taxes low and to bring down borrowing in the wake of the billions spent helping the country get through the Covid-19 pandemic.