The increased taxes

[alisawhite123]

Treasury officials have also suggested introducing new taxes
to raise revenue, including a "surcharge" to pay for NHS and social care – an option floated during plans for this year's Budget before it was dropped. New "green taxes" are also under discussion among Treasury officials.

The Treasury has floated the idea of whether some Tory manifesto commitments on day-to-day spending or investment should be prioritised over others, suggesting some of them may need to be scrapped. Meanwhile officials have also raised the question of preventing "ongoing costs" of the Government's coronavirus relief measures.

The job retention scheme now supports the wages of 7.5 million employees, equivalent to a quarter of Britain's private sector workforce, at a cost of more than £10 billion. Each worker is paid up to £2,500 a month by the taxpayer.

The scale of the scheme, combined with millions more people who are claiming benefits, means that more than 27 million people – more than half the UK's adult population – are now funded by the taxpayer.

On Tuesday, Mr Sunak announced the furlough scheme to help employers and employees will run for a further four months.