Therese Raphael, Columnist

Rishi Sunak Can’t Answer the U.K.’s Big Tax Question

The answer to how much more spending Britain will need depends on three factors outside the chancellor’s control.

November 26, 2020 at 7:00 AM UTC

Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering health care and British politics. Previously, she was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.

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U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak didn’t need to explain why his government is spending and borrowing so much when he issued his budget statement Wednesday. That much was obvious: The independent Office for Budget Responsibility forecast the country’s economy will shrink by 11.3% this year, the largest fall in output in 300 years. Even by 2025, the country’s economy will be 3% smaller than it was when Sunak delivered his March budget. Britain’s “economic emergency has only just begun,” he warned.

But like the many other times when the chancellor had to announce rafts of new spending, the real questions were ones he can’t answer: Will this next round be enough? What does it mean for taxes?