According to the latest official figures, government debt currently stands at around £2.9 trillion, equivalent to around 95 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Interest on this debt was, at £110 billion for 2025-26, the highest in several decades. Government borrowing in May was £23.3 billion, up 30 per cent on a year ago. At this rate, the debt will hit £3 trillion within a few months.
Occasionally we hear that borrowing costs are down following unexpectedly good economic news. But that’s only transitory – the trend is relentlessly upwards, exacerbated by higher interest rates.
Borrowing ever more to cover an income shortfall would trigger alarm bells for any prudent householder. But it is endemic to government thinking.
The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, warned a House of Lords Committee on 2 June of the risk of a “vicious circle” of rising borrowing costs if the government fails to control its debts. Despite that he is still defending the policy of selling gilts.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph on 8 June, Britain’s national debt is growing faster than any country tracked by the International Monetary Fund. That’s not something we hear about from the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
When we’re told that taxes must rise or spending must fall, the right response is to challenge the spiralling cost of funding vanity projects (many of them “green”) at the expense of safeguarding industry and looking after the basics.
• A longer version of this article is on the web at www.cpbml.org.uk