Facing recession, UK outlines billions in tax increases and spending cuts

London: Seeking to restore Britain’s fiscal credibility after a calamitous foray into trickledown economics, the British government on Thursday announced tens of billions of pounds of tax increases and spending cuts that officials promised would plug a gaping hole in the nation’s public finances.

The chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, detailed a raft of higher taxes, worth £25 billion, or about $29.7 billion, and cuts to government programmes, saving £30 billion. Together, it amounted to one of the most austere budgets ever imposed on Britain, a country that is already in a recession. The plan’s immediate goal was to reduce a public deficit swollen by vast payouts during the pandemic and the energy crisis. But the budget was also an act of fiscal penitence after the sweeping tax cuts rolled out in September by the last PM, Liz Truss, which roiled the markets.