Britain is to increase its counter-terrorism funding by 30 per cent in the wake of the Paris attacks, finance minister George Osborne said on Sunday. The chancellor of the exchequer would not rule out cuts to frontline police numbers but said he was confident Britain would be able to deal with a major terror assault.

Mr Osborne will deliver his so-called autumn statement, or budget update, on Wednesday alongside a spe-nding review that is expected to lead to cutbacks aimed at slashing the deficit.

“Precisely because we are making difficult decisions in other parts of our budget, we can give our military more kit, we can increase our counter-terrorism bud-get by 30 per cent and we can also take action to prevent guns coming into this country and deal with gunmen on the streets,” he said.

Spending on counter-terrorism will hit $22.9 billion over the next five years.“Increasing the counter-terrorism budget by 30 percent involves money going to the police as well as our security agencies to make sure we can deal with ma-rauding gun attacks (and) make sure we can stop the guns coming into the country in the first place,” said Mr Osborne.

Mr Osborne will renewed push to fix Britain’s budget will herald a range of spending cuts. According to IMF data, the UK’s pending cuts rank as the most aggressive austerity plan among the world’s rich economies between now and 2020.

Mr Osborn rejects accusations that his insistence on a budget surplus by the end of the decade is a choice, saying Britain needs fiscal strength to fight off future shocks to the economy.

As in the first five years of his austerity push, he plans to spare Britain’s health service, schools and foreign aid budget from his new cuts and will increase defence spending. Britain’s police departments and the justice system, which runs courts, are also likely to bear the brunt of further cuts. That means that cuts for unprotected areas of government, such as local councils, will be all the deeper. Voters are likely to notice the cuts more in the years ahead than they have done so far.