Why £300bn of government borrowing in the pandemic has been money well spent

The economics profession has been united in the view that it was necessary for the government to allow the deficit to balloon in the extraordinary context of the past year, says Ben Chu

Covid collapsed the national income by around 10 per cent (AFP via Getty Images)

The headlines – unsurprisingly – refer to record borrowing.

The Office for National Statistics reported on Friday that the government’s deficit over the 2020-21 fiscal year came in at around £303bn.

That’s up from just £57bn in 2019-20 and is easily the largest amount borrowed in cash terms by a UK government in a single year.