Could postwar Britain afford more carriers?

How financially constrained was Britain after the war, and could it have afforded a larger carrier fleet?

Britain was strained but not incapable; more carrier money existed if the government chose carriers over the V-bomber force and nuclear weapons.

Postwar debt and economic shocks mattered, but they did not predetermine every force choice. Britain prioritized the V-bomber force and an independent nuclear deterrent, both exceptionally expensive programs. A larger carrier fleet was fiscally possible only by redirecting money from those strategic priorities.