UK government borrowing was higher than expected in February, heaping pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of her Spring Statement next week. The figure rose to £10.7 billion last month, larger than forecast and the fourth-highest February figure on record, official data published on Friday showed.
Borrowing is the difference between spending and income from taxes. Economists have suggested Ms Reeves will announce spending cuts next week in order to meet her self-imposed rules for the economy, which the Treasury reiterated were “non-negotiable”. Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP said: “Today’s concerning figures are yet another major blow to the Chancellor’s faltering plan for growth, and show her approach is simply not working.
“The Chancellor has failed to turn the page on the years of Conservative economic vandalism. Instead, Reeves’s jobs tax will hammer small businesses, painting herself into a corner on her own fiscal rules.
“The only way to rebuild our public services is through meaningful growth, but unless the Chancellor sees sense and scraps her jobs tax at the Spring Statement, hardworking families and small businesses will continue to pay the price.”
Overall spending on public services increased compared with the same month last year, with things like social benefits and investment spending more than had been forecast, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “We must go further and faster to create an agile and productive state that works for people.
“That’s why we’re refocusing the public sector on our missions and, for the first time in 17 years, going through every penny of taxpayer money line by line, to make sure it is helping us secure Britain’s future through the plan for change.
“At the core of this urgent mission is sound public finances, based on our non-negotiable fiscal rules. This Government will never play fast and loose with the public finances.”
Jessica Barnaby, the ONS’s deputy director for public sector finances, said: “At £10.7 billion, public sector borrowing in the month of February was virtually unchanged on the same month last year. However, borrowing over the financial year to date was up nearly £15 billion on the equivalent period last year.”
