The 2021 Budget - Sunak faces tough fiscal challenges

This Newsnight report looks at the prospects for the Budget in 2021, with clear identification of the stresses that face the UK economy.

It seems a difficult business - how to support businesses until the end of lockdown, whilst looking forwards to a time when fiscal policy can look to reduce the budget deficit.

This is an excellent report, that highlights the implications of record levels of borrowing as well as the fact that low interest rates are a blessing at the moment.

Larry Elliott's take in the Guardian on next week's Budget confirms a theme that has run through Boris Johnson's term of office. We're all Keynesians now: the Chancellor is implored to keep the taps open and keep supporting business. Deficit reduction can wait, apparently