Chancellor Rishi Sunak has hinted of tax rises ahead as he said governments had a “sacred” duty to balance the nation’s books.
Ministers have spent billions of pounds keeping the economy afloat in recent months, including on the wages of millions of workers under the furlough scheme.
But Mr Sunak, who is under increasing pressure over his decision to end furlough payments this month despite rising numbers of coronavirus cases, told his party’s annual conference ministers could not go on spending forever.
In a speech to the event, held online because of the Covid-19 crisis, he said: “If …we argue there is no limit on what we can spend, that we can simply borrow our way out of any hole, what is the point in us.”
He added that there were “hard choices” to make as he pledged to balance the books, despite the global pandemic.
He told his party faithful: “We will protect the public finances over the medium-term, getting our borrowing and debt back under control.
“We have a sacred responsibility to future generations to leave the public finances strong, and through careful management of our economy, this Conservative Government will always balance the books.”
He added: “I have never pretended there is some easy cost-free answer.
“Hard choices are everywhere.”
During the speech Mr Sunak reiterated that he could not save every job in the UK.
But he told those fearful of unemployment “the overwhelming might of the British state will be placed at your service.
“We will not let talent wither, or waste, we will help all who want it, find new opportunity and develop new skills.”
The chancellor also praised Boris Johnson, as he sought to stem rumours of a rift between the two men.
Mr Sunak has robustly defended his flagship ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme, which offered diners half-price meals in restaurants in August, against the charge that it helped fuel the rise in coronavirus cases.
But at the weekend the prime minister did not deny the hugely popular scheme could have led to an increase in infections.
Mr Sunak told the conference that the last few months had been difficult, and that challenges were part of the job for senior politicians, adding: “But on the big calls, in the big moments, Boris Johnson has got it right and that is the leadership that we need.”
During a question and answer session, he denied he had ambitions to replace Mr Johnson, saying “Oh God. No. Definitely not… seeing what the prime minister has to deal with – this job is hard enough for me to do.”
He described the two men as “personally close” but while Mr Johnson calls him “Rish” he is more formal, he revealed.
“I call him prime minister,” he said. “He keeps trying to tell me to call him other things… but I just stick with PM.”
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said that Mr Sunak’s speech suggested he had not “grasped the magnitude of the jobs crisis we’re facing”.
Speaking on a visit to an injection moulding plant in Southend-on-Sea in Essex, she said: “The Chancellor appeared mainly to list what he had already done, in the winter statement for example.
“He didn’t suggest that any additional measures would be taken.
“We really need targeted support where we need it to keep people in work, to help those people who have already become unemployed and sadly there was nothing from the Chancellor today to suggest that he grasped the magnitude of the jobs crisis we’re facing.”
