Austerity is finally at an end, Sajid Javid promised in his first spending review as chancellor, pledging not to cut the funding of a single department next year.
“Britain’s hard work has paid off,” the chancellor told the Commons on Wednesday as he laid out the government’s spending plans for the next year.
“Every single government department has had its budget for day-to-day spending increased at least in line with inflation.”
The vow came amid a flurry of spending promises as the Conservative Party gears up for the snap general election Johnson wants to hold in October.
With Johnson expected to table a motion in parliament tonight in a bid to send the country to the polls, Javid delivered a series of pledges – including a real terms increase of £13.8 billion in day-to-day spending, the fastest rise in 15 years.
He also announced a 6.3% increase in Home Office spending, a £6.2 billion boost to NHS funding and £1.5 billion in new funding for social care.
Sajid Javid’s spending promises:
- 6.3% increase in Home Office spending
- £45 million this year to allow the training of new police officers to begin, with 2,000 expected to be in place by March 2020
- £6.2 billion increase in NHS funding
- £1.5 billion in new funding for social care
- An additional £54 million in funding to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping, bringing the overall fund to £422 million
- £422 million to DEFRA to push ahead with creating “world leading environmental standards” post-Brexit, plus £30 million to improve air quality
- £7.1 billion increase in school spending by 2022/23, with per-pupil funding set to rise to £5,000 in secondary schools and at least £3,750 in primary schools by next year
- £2.2 billion for the Ministry of Defence, a real terms increase of 2.6%
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Javid of delivering a “sham” of a spending review.
He said the government was “still failing to deliver a real end to austerity”.
“The Tories have checked what are the top three or four issues in the polls and cynically judged just how little money they have to throw around to try and neutralise the concerns people,” he said.
“So to come here and then try to fool us with references to people’s priorities is beyond irony.
“When did this extremist right-wing Tory party ever put the people first? Were they putting the people first when they froze child benefit, year after year?”
Meanwhile, former Conservative MP Heidi Allen – who quit the party to join Change UK before becoming an independent MP – tweeted: “This is all very strange.
“I should be relieved to hear the chancellor announce a boost for my desperately under-funded schools, but I know this spending review is built on quicksand.
“It means nothing because this is a gov pledging anything to everyone to try & stay in power.”
The spending review comes the day after PM lost his paper-thin majority in parliament when Bracknell MP Phillip Lee defected to the Lib Dems.
Johnson later ejected 21 MPs from the party for voting to give MPs control of the parliamentary agenda in a bid to block a no-deal Brexit.
The PM has insisted he will table a motion for an early election if the legislation passes through the Commons, saying the voting public must be allowed to decide what happens with Brexit.
The fiery scenes seen in the Commons yesterday continued during the chancellor’s statement, with the speaker John Bercow intervening to call Javid’s attack on Labour during his speech “unseemly”.
The cabinet minister had accused Labour of being the biggest threat to the economy and responsible for “Project Fear”.
“It really is very, very unseemly and I’m sorry to have to say that to the Chancellor of the Exchequer who’s always been unfailingly courteous in his dealings with me and probably with everybody else,” Bercow said.
Meanwhile, McDonnell responded to a heckle from the PM by saying: “I believe the honourable member for Uxbridge is shouting at me.
“Last time he was shouting at someone they had to call the police.”