Rachel Reeves goes back to the future with a tax and spend budget
by Larry Elliott Economics editor from World news | The Guardian on (#6RVV5)
Chancellor heeds calls long made on the left for spending to match other European countries with rise of 70bn a year
The days of tax and spend are supposed to be over, but clearly no one told Rachel Reeves. The chancellor's debut budget - with its sharp increases in spending, taxes and borrowing - was a budget from yesteryear.
In her speech, Reeves harked back to the times Labour governments had arrived in power - in 1945, 1964 and 1979 - needing to sort out Britain's problems. This was most like a mid-1960s budget, with its vision of a bigger state used to modernise the economy.
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