Liz Truss said yesterday she was not planning to cut public spending. There were questions about what exactly the Prime Minister meant.
Downing Street has now tried to offer some clarity.
The Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman said: “As she said, overall spending will not decrease, it will continue to increase in real terms. Over the past 12 years, it has grown from £750 billion in 2010 to nearly £1 trillion today.
After confirming that the overall amount spent on public expenditures will increase, the spokesperson was then asked about the possibility of increasing or decreasing the budgets of the various departments.
They said: “As far as departments are concerned, obviously there is a process to follow which is led by the Treasury.
“As the Prime Minister said, we need to spend public money wisely and work as efficiently as possible to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent on the things that matter most to the public.
This would suggest that departmental budgets might change in the future, perhaps mid-decade.
Downing Street has also confirmed that the tens of billions of pounds spent on supporting energy bills will be included in the overall public spending figure.
The spokesperson said: “Obviously this should be taken into account in any spending decision. This is an intervention to ensure that the public, households and even utilities are not faced with extraordinarily high bills.”
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