Labour has blown a fresh hole in the nation’s finances, leaving hard working Brits facing a massive payback with interest.
New official figures show government borrowing has surged to its highest level outside the pandemic, smashing past official forecasts and piling pressure on families already struggling with the cost of living.
The Office for National Statistics, ONS, said borrowing hit a whopping £132.3bn in the first eight months of the financial year, £10bn more than last year and £16.8bn higher than the watchdog Office for Budget Responsibility, OBR, predicted in March.
That eye watering total comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s £30bn tax grab Budget, with the numbers laying bare the cost of Labour’s big spending instincts.
In November alone, the deficit stood at £11bn. It means Labour has already borrowed more than £132bn this year just to cover the gap between what the state takes in and what it splashes out.
The result is the highest borrowing on record outside Covid, when lockdowns shut down the economy, and a warning sign of what’s to come under Labour.
The ONS blamed soaring public sector pay, higher welfare bills and inflation for pushing up costs. Public sector wages are rising at a record pace, while benefit spending continues to balloon faster than inflation.
Official data shows taxpayer funded workers enjoyed pay rises of 7.6 per cent over the past year, the fastest growth since records began in 2001, almost double the 3.9 per cent seen in the private sector.
All this as private firms and workers are squeezed by Labour’s relentless tax raids.
The OBR has already been forced to hike its borrowing forecast for the year by £20bn to £138.3bn, but current figures suggest even that gloomy estimate could be blown apart. Ministers are now crossing their fingers for a bumper January tax haul from the self employed and higher earners to stop the numbers looking even worse.
Meanwhile, spending on benefits has jumped by £15.1bn to £219.3bn, while interest on the national debt has cost taxpayers £71.1bn so far this year.
That is money down the drain, cash that could have gone on schools, hospitals or cutting taxes, but instead is swallowed up servicing Labour’s debt mountain.
Trying to put a brave face on the figures, Treasury minister James Murray insisted every penny of taxpayers’ cash should be spent wisely, admitting that £1 in every £10 now goes on debt interest alone.
But the reality is simple, every hard working Brit will be left to pay this back, and then some.
More borrowing, more interest, more pain. That is the true cost of Labour.
