MNI BRIEF: UK Finance Minister Sunak: Aim To Balance The Books

The UK will aim to return public finances to balance rather than continuing to increase borrowing in response to the Covid pandemic, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told the ruling Conservative Party's annual conference Monday. Having scrapped a planned Autumn Budget, Sunak has no given timeframe for laying down any new fiscal rules but he argued that Conservative political philosophy was inextricably linked to tight control of the public finances rather than funding through borrowing.

Sunak signalled that plans set out in the September 24 Winter Economy Plan, a small scale economic package centred around the Job Support Scheme under which the government meets only part of the cost of income support for those working reduced hours, could be amended or extended.