But today he wrote to cabinet ministers, asking them to draw up cuts of up to 5% of their spending plans. In the note, Mr Javid wrote: “We have been elected with a clear fiscal mandate to keep control of day to day spending. Every single department has had its budget for day to day spending increased at least in line with inflation. Labour's Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: "We were promised by Johnson and Javid that austerity had ended and the cuts in public services were over. Another Johnson lie exposed.”In September, Mr McDonnell accused Mr Javid of “grubby electioneering” with the spending round speech, and "pretending to end austerity when they do nothing of the sort".

Source: Daily Mirror January 29, 2020 19:41 UTC