Sunak says spring statement is ‘progressive’ in response to criticism from MPs

theguardian.com:

Rishi Sunak has defended his spring statement from accusations that it failed to do enough to help the poorest in Britain with soaring living costs by arguing that extra help could have put government finances at risk.

In a fractious exchange with MPs on the House of Commons Treasury committee, the chancellor said he had been forced to make choices over where to prioritise support because of rising government borrowing costs as the British economy is buffeted by surging inflation made worse by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“One may say, if they don’t like my choices, they’d be happy to borrow a lot more. That’s just not something I think is responsible or sensible,” he said.

The chancellor was attacked for being a “fiscal illusionist” for pledging some tax cuts while driving up the overall tax burden and not helping the poorest in society. The Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh asked: “Why did you prioritise your ambition to have a reputation as a tax-cutter over helping people really worried about heating their homes or feeding their kids?”

Sunak said it was not possible to fully insulate every household in Britain from high levels of inflation and insisted that his spring statement and earlier £9bn energy support package were “progressive”, with measures to help the poorest in society.

The chancellor has faced heavy criticism for not increasing the value of universal credit benefits by more than the planned 3.1% rate from April, despite forecasts for inflation to rise to 8% in the same month. However, he said there were sufficient alternative measures in place – including hardship funding available through local councils and support to help unemployed people into work.

“I appreciate people may have wanted to do more on welfare, less to