Media playback is unsupported on your device
The Chancellor has vowed to “always keep a balance of books” despite the increased costs following the Covid-19 epidemic.
“Keeping public money strong is the” sacred duty “of the Conservatives,” Shi Sunak told party members.
He vowed to use the “overwhelming power of the British state” to help people find new work.
But he said debt and spending needed to be controlled “in the medium term.”
In a speech online during the Conservatives’ annual party conference, he said: “I will not stop trying to find ways to support people and businesses.”
However, he added that the party could not argue that “there is no limit to what we can spend”, or even that “we can easily borrow from any hole”.
Mr Sunak cited the Farlo scheme and its successor, the Employment Support Scheme, as an example of government action to support employment during a crisis.
He said that although the government would “try to be creative” for employment assistance, he would have to be “pragmatic”.
He told members that “no chancellor” could save every job or business, adding that the change in the economy caused by Covid-19 “cannot be ignored.”
Official figures released in September show that the government borrowed .935.9 billion in the previous month, the highest in August since records began in 1993.
As ministers spent billions on coronavirus-related schemes to support the economy, a total of 17 3 173.7bn was raised between April and August Gust.
Sunak is keen to pull off a big spending reputation
The government’s response to the epidemic is at various levels.
It is not clear what the Chancellor means, promising to keep him under control in the “medium term”.
Nor was there any whisper about how it could be done.
Treasury sources indicated that it is unlikely to happen by the time of the next election, 2024.
But while the first few months of the chancellor’s job were characterized by extreme crisis-level spending, it’s a characteristic that he’s keen to be aggressive.
Read more from Laura
In an interview after his speech, the chancellor said government debt – which passed August 2 trillion for the first time in history in August – was sensitive to rising borrowing costs.
“Now that we have a lot of debt, it doesn’t take much for a sudden ‘yx’ – we have to spend billions of dollars a year to pay for higher interest.
Mr Sunak – who is considered a potential future Tory leader – also said he did not want to be prime minister, and described his “ga personal friendship” with Boris Johnson.
Asked if he ultimately wanted to avenge Mr Johnson, he replied: “No. I don’t know exactly what to do with the Prime Minister. This job is difficult enough for me.”
Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor, said: “The chancellor knows that in the days leading up to his Winter Economic Plan, unemployment is going to go up to 5%, and social sanctions are not going down. Subsidy schemes
“This is a continuation of the trend we’ve seen in the last few weeks since the budget was canceled. There will be more support for the economy, but with really tough decisions – for example, tax-free.”
Image copyright pyrite
Reuters
Ministers have promised additional support to help people find new jobs.
In response to his speech, Shadow Chancellor Nel Nelis Dodds said Mr Sunke had “nothing to say” to the millions of people whose jobs were at risk.
He told reporters that more “targeted support” was needed for sectors of the economy that were most affected by sanctions during the epidemic.
“The sad thing is that nothing was received from the Chancellor today that indicated that he has captured the severity of the employment crisis we are facing.”
The best way to balance books is to “protect the ability of our economy to recover,” said Dame Caroline Fairburn, director general of the business lobby group CBI.
He added that the cost of the epidemic was deeply and unevenly reduced, adding that risky sectors such as aviation, manufacturing and hospitality must be protected.
