Budget 2020: Is this really the end of austerity?

Has the fresh-faced Rishi Sunak delivered the terminal blow to this colossally controversial policy which like some horror film monster keeps coming back from the grave? Ben Chu investigates

Rishi Sunak delivers his Budget speech yesterday (UK Parliament/AFP/Getty)

Reports of the death of austerity, like that of Mark Twain, have been greatly exaggerated in recent years.

Theresa May tried to read its last rites in 2017. Her chancellor Philip Hammond posed as undertaker.

There was even talk of the demise of the policy of spending cuts when George Osborne, its architect, was still in 11 Downing Street.