UK national debt hits £3trillion as inflation spikes ahead of John Healey’s Budget

Inflation has risen with the national debt hitting an eye-watering £3trillion ahead of John Healey‘s first Budget as Andy Burnham’s Chancellor.

Mr Burnham’s Government has already suggested it could hike taxes on several sectors as well as abolishing the triple lock – sparking fury from British pensioners.

Now standing at 3.5%, inflation sits at its highest level since last October, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

Britain’s national debt bill is also expected to rise above £3trillion for the first time in British history, up some 50% since June 2020 when it stood at £2trillion.

Mr Healey has pledged to give households “breathing space” in the next Budget and has more recently claimed the economy had “momentum”, despite the skyrocketing figures.

His Tory rivals opened fire this morning with Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Chancellor, saying the stats “show Labour has lost control of the economy”.

Mr Griffith added that the Budget, which is due next week, “needs to take urgent action to tackle the deficit, reduce the red tape and net zero costs that are driving up the cost of living for families”.

The Tories have been increasing their attacks against Labour and its record on the economy, and the top Tory said his party would “always be honest about the state of our nation’s finances”.

Its leader, Kemi Badenoch, has taken to calling her left-wing opponents the “welfare party” in a series of vicious swipes at backbench MPs.

Her criticism only compounded after the Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden MP, was found to have said that his MPs were always asking: “Who can we tax to pay for more benefits?”

Reform UK also took aim at the data, with Robert Jenrick MP saying: “Inflation is running out of control because Burnham won’t make the choices that would cut people’s bills.”

He added that waste could be cut by axing “benefits for foreigners, overseas aid, and net zero”, suggesting the money be used to lower bills.

But Mr Jenrick warned the Prime Minister would not do so “because he’s too weak to give this country the change that it needs.”

Tax campaigners also struck out at the figures, with Darwin Friend of the TaxPayers’ Alliance telling the Daily Express the debt level was a “grim milestone”.

He branded the figure “a damning indictment of decades of fiscal failure” and warned that borrowing would only rise, leaving taxpayers “paying a terrifying price for Whitehall’s addiction to spending.”

Mr Healey, however, pledged to carry on “maintaining our fiscal discipline and drive for growth in every postcode” in next week’s Budget.