Britain's national debt breaks the £3 trillion barrier for the first time just a week before the Chancellor's maiden Budget
Britain's debt interest bill hit £10.9bn in September alone — the highest for that month on record — as John Healey's fiscal headroom looks set to halve to around £12bn.John Healey, whose first Budget falls on 28 October, faces borrowing of £97.8bn in the first half of the year — £6bn above OBR forecasts — and is set to raise taxes on banks.
September's debt interest bill came in at £10.9bn — the steepest recorded for that month. Borrowing for the period reached £24.5bn, overshooting Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts by £1.9bn. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told Prime Minister Andy Burnham at PMQs that the debt amounts to '£100,000 for every household'. Healey is expected to raise bank taxes when he delivers his Budget on 28 October.
It took a decade for debt to climb to £2tn, yet only six years more to breach £3tn.
Inflation jumped to 3.5% in September, pushed higher by the energy shock from the Iran war.
RSM's Thomas Pugh says inflation 'almost guarantees' a Bank of England rate hike next month.
