Budget: The Four Hundred Billion Pound Man

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Business was taken aback when Rishi Sunak raised its tax bill in this week’s Budget – but the sums Sunak is dealing with are eyewatering. Is there enough in his plans for tapered support and delayed tax to stimulate a post-COVID recovery? Will a country that’s been sold on “levelling up” accept higher taxes by stealth and lowered living standards? Plus: what on earth is going on with Sturgeon vs Salmond – and how could it affect Scotland’s political future? This week’s special guests are Torcuil Crichton, political editor of the Daily Record, and IfG Fellow and former advisor to Tony Blair John McTernan. “It’s very clear that the Government are going to use the pork barrel. You can see the lineaments of Populist government” – John McTernan “That was the emptiest budget box to come to Parliament in a long time, and Starmer was quite good at laying out what wasn’t there.” – Torcuil Crichton “The Government seems to believe the economy has been suppressed and will come roaring back of its own accord” – John McTernan Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Gemma Tetlow and Akash Paun. Audio production by Alex Rees See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.7	I'm Bronwyn Maddox.
0:16.8	The day of theatre in Westminster, but also in Hollywood.
0:19.8	At one end of the country, Rishi Sunak unveiled his budget to MPs.
0:23.7	To do his plans for reviving the economy add-up, we'll crunch the numbers and we'll look at what's missing in our view.
0:29.0	And as he stood at the dispatch box, a few hundred miles away in Edinburgh,
0:32.2	Scotland's First Minister, Nicholas Sturgeon, was being quizzed by members of the Scottish Parliament
0:36.1	as part of the inquiry
0:37.5	into her government's botched handling of harassment complaints against her predecessor Alex Salmon.
0:43.4	We're going to explore how this intricate and bitter affair could have a big impact on the Scottish
0:47.7	elections and perhaps a profound impact on the future of the UK. Well, I've got a terrific
0:52.8	line-up with me today in the virtual studio.
0:55.6	IFG chief economist, Gemma Tetlow, is back after a very vigorous time reporting on the budget.
1:01.8	Hi, Gemma.
1:02.9	Hello.
1:04.0	IFG senior fellow and our in-house expert on all things devolved.
1:07.7	Akash Pound is here. Hi, Akash.
1:10.0	Hi, Bronan.
1:13.0	We've also got IFG senior fellow John McTernan, who's been writing on the Civil War and the SNP. He's with us again. Hi, John. Thanks
1:17.5	for joining us. Hi, Bromond. And I'm delighted that we're also joined today by Talk
1:22.8	or Kryton, the Westminster editor of the Daily Record. Great to see you again. How are you? Very good. Welcome from a virtual Westminster, I guess. I guess that's right. Well, it didn't
1:32.9	feel so virtual this week. Let's start with the budget. Rishi Sunak is no stranger to the art of
	...

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