Boris Johnson's 'New Deal' really depends on Brexit deal

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined on Tuesday what he called a "New Deal" for the nation's post-pandemic economic recovery.

Yet, his vision was little more than a recycling of old announcements in what is a pale imitation of US President Franklin Roosevelt's historic programme after the Great Depression.

The prime minister likes big, historical analogies, but the comparisons between the £5 billion package he re-announced and Roosevelt's New Deal are fanciful. For starters, the scale of spending Mr Johnson outlined is puny compared to the scope of the US New Deal, risking raising public expectations he can't hope to meet. In part, this is because the New Deal ran over several years, with spending each year between 5 and 7 per cent of the total economic output. Mr Johnson's £5 billion (S$8.7 billion) stimulus is less than a quarter of 1 per cent of GDP in comparison.