Osborne's fiscal illusion exposed as a house of credit cards

The chancellor's sums could only be made to add up by some rather blatant accounting tricks, disapprovingly debunked by thinktanks and observers

George Osborne had a plan when he arrived at the Treasury in May 2010. He would take on the task of repairing the hole in the UK's public finances and complete the job within a single parliament. It was an ambitious plan: too ambitious, as it turns out.

Austerity was extended into a second five-year parliament, and as a result of the chancellor's eighth budget, now persists into a third, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. As things stand, the only way the government can meet its target of running a budget surplus in 2020-21 is if it cuts an additional 10bn in Whitehall spending.

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