No one was expecting a big tax cut this year. Rishi Sunak’s government has been clear that 2023 is for the ‘difficult decisions’. If the Tories are to offer up a tax cut, it is much more likely to be announced in the Budget next March. Still, that didn’t make Jeremy Hunt’s comments on LBC last night any cheerier.

Speaking to Andrew Marr, the Chancellor said that tax cuts were ‘virtually impossible’ due to soaring interest payable on government debt.

Hunt has a point: one of the many painful consequences of soaring inflation and higher interest rates has been the impact on public finances. In July, interest payments reached their highest level for that month on record, totalling £7.7 billion, up £1.5 billion from July last year. August this year was slightly better: interest payments were £5.6 billion, £3.1 billion less than the previous year, but still the third highest August on record. This money is being spent every month to service the debt — that is, money we have already spent. You don’t get anything new for that: no new hospitals, no new railways. And it’s much harder to find the scope for tax cuts.

But there’s another point, which the Chancellor did not make. Rates may be taking their toll, but the government has also opted to increase spending pledges this year. More ‘free’ childcare was offered up in the March Budget this year, for example — not tax cuts. Billions of pounds are being borrowed each month to plug the many spending holes: this week’s public sector finance update showed public sector net borrowing at £11.6 billion in August – £1.4 billion below the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast, but still £3.5 billion higher than in August last year.

Sunak and Hunt are no doubt responding to public support (and demand) for more government cash to be spent: on subsidies, on the NHS, on public sector pay. But so long as the government keeps racking up bills and making spending promises for the future (the government is taxing and spending far more right now than Tony Blair or Gordon Brown ever did), it is going to be much harder to deliver tax cuts in a sustainable way.