UK finance minister says end to austerity depends on Brexit deal

Britain’s Chancellor of Exchequer, the top finance and economy official in the country, says an end to years of austerity will depend on whether the UK will be able to a secure a deal on its withdrawal from the European Union.

Philip Hammond warned Sunday that if Britain fails to reach a deal on Brexit, the country must reverse plans to ease nearly a decade of austerity.

“We would need to look at a different strategy and frankly we’d need to have a new budget that set out a different strategy for the future,” Hammond told Sky News in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Hammond is due to announce his annual budget on Monday.

He is under pressure to end a series of spending cuts that have been put in place since 2010 when the then Conservative-led government introduced them to shrink the budget deficit.

UK Prime  Minister Theresa May told the British parliament last week that years of hard work by Britons had paid off and they could celebrate the end of austerity measures.

SS