UK financial black hole to be 'three times higher than 2019' by next election

Recession and slow recovery will leave borrowing about 100bn higher than when Johnson became PM, says IFS

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The government will head into the next election with a black hole in the public finances almost three times bigger than when Boris Johnson came to power, a leading thinktank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the scale of the Covid recession and Britain's slow economic recovery would inflict lasting damage for the exchequer, leaving borrowing about 100bn higher by the time of the election in 2024 than forecast before the pandemic struck.