Disagreements between Downing Street and the Treasury have once again burst out into the open. “Treasury sources” criticised the government in the Guardian, while the Treasury was blamed for an explosive briefing by a “Downing Street source” speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, which has since been reported in nearly all the papers.
One of the biggest political achievements of Rishi Sunak’s Treasury team was getting Boris Johnson to sign up to a very austere fiscal framework in March 2021. Last month’s spending review, in contrast, was a defeat: essentially all of Sunak’s headroom went on increased public spending and the first real-terms spending increase many parts of the British state have received since Labour lost office.
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