Boris Johnson has vowed austerity won't be a part of the government's plan to recover from any economic crisis caused by coronavirus.
The PM said he has "never particularly liked" the term - invoked by David Cameron's coalition government as a euphemism for savage cuts to public services in the wake of the 2008 global financial crash.
Asked by ITV's Robert Peston whether he would feel "compelled" when the crisis is over to cut public services and usher in a new age of austerity, Mr Johnson said he would not.
He said: "You know what my instincts are ...I think the economy will bounce back strongly.
"I think this government will want to encourage that bounce-back in all kinds of ways. I've never particularly liked the term that just you used to describe government economic policy, and it certainly won't be part of our approach."
He aded: "Austerity, by the way was the term he used, for viewers who have forgotten what Robert said."
Mr Johnson has long-claimed he was not in favour of austerity when it was introduced.
He was Mayor of London when the strategy was introduced - and while he clashed with David Cameron over spending cuts, he also wrote a newspaper column calling on the government to "bear down on wasteful public spending".
Since returning to the Commons as an MP in 2015, he has consistently voted in favour of austerity policies.
At today's coronavirus briefing, Mr Johnson's first since recovering from the virus, he promised to deliver a "comprehensive plan" next week to set out "how we can get our economy moving", how people might travel to work and how children can go back to school or into childcare.
Fronting his first Downing Street press conference since recovering from Covid-19, the Prime Minister thanked the NHS for his care, adding that the country was now "past the peak of this disease" and "on the downward slope".
He said: "I will be setting out a comprehensive plan next week to explain how we can get our economy moving, our children back to school and into childcare, and thirdly how we can travel to work and make life in the workplace safer.
"In short, how we can continue to suppress the disease and at the same time restart the economy."
However the PM cautioned that the timing around easing each individual restriction would depend on "where we are in the epidemic" and what the data suggests.
He told reporters: "What you are going to get next week is really a roadmap, a menu of options.
"The dates and times of each individual measure will be very much driven by where we are in the epidemic, what the data is really saying, and we are getting in a lot more data every day now and in the course of the next few days."
