The extra debt interest that Britain will rack up over the next five years is enough to fund the salaries of millions of new nurses and teachers, according to a scathing new analysis.
The Office for Budget Responsibility expects the country’s debt interest will cost an extra £63billion compared with its March forecast.
This could fund the salaries of 2.3million new nurses, or two million new teachers or 1.65million new police officers, the Taxpayers’ Alliance has warned.
It says the £15.9billion increase in debt interest forecast for 2024-25 would “cover the winter fuel allowance for over a decade” with £1.9billion left over.
William Yarwood of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Rachel Reeves’ reckless budget looks set to completely destroy the foundations of the UK economy. The Chancellor has chosen a path of fiscal irresponsibility which will do extraordinary damage to the public finances which will be felt by taxpayers for years after she leaves the Treasury.
“But this will be particularly painful for pensioners and farmers who have been told that there is no alternative. The Government urgently needs to get a grip on the national debt and stop it from spiralling further out of control.”
The pressure group has calculated the national debt will increase by £6,082 a second in 2024-25 – or by £525.5million a day.
A spokesman for the Treasury defended the Labour Government’s handling of the national finances.
He said: “We took difficult decisions to meet our robust fiscal rules, to get net financial debt falling and match revenues to day-to-day spending. The current budget deficit is forecast to improve every year until 2027-28 when it will be in a surplus of £10.9billion which is almost double the OBR’s forecast in March and will be the biggest in over 20 years if achieved.
“This will be essential to delivering the economic stability the Chancellor has been clear is needed to grow our economy. The investment rule puts the public finances on a sustainable path while prioritising capital investment to fix the foundations and support long-term growth as our number one mission.”
