Labour asleep at the wheel as debt crisis spirals

We have to face facts. Britain's public finances are in a perilous position - and Labour are asleep at the wheel. Last month, the government borrowed £18 billion. That's the worst August borrowing figure since the pandemic and is a direct result of Rachel Reeves' economic mismanagement.

Rachel Reeves promised stability, but she's delivered spiralling debt and rising borrowing costs. She now has a black hole to fill just to keep to her own rules - the rules she already rewrote to allow even more borrowing. The price? Yet more tax rises in the autumn. More pain for working people. And a debt burden our children will be paying off for decades.

This is not a government in control. It's one stumbling from crisis to crisis, with no plan to fix the mess. Higher spending, higher taxes, and no grip on the deficit - all wrapped up in the fiction that the books are balanced. But the markets aren't fooled. And neither is Keir Starmer - who has set up his own Treasury team inside Number 10 to sideline his beleaguered Chancellor.

Debt now stands at almost 100 per cent of GDP. Just servicing that debt is costing taxpayers more than £100 billion a year - that's almost twice what we spend on defence. On Labour's trajectory, that figure will rise to £130 billion. That is totally irresponsible and unsustainable.

Every extra pound Labour fritter away on debt interest is another pound that can't be spent on schools, hospitals, or bringing taxes down. After she raised taxes by £40 billion last October - including a £25billion tax on jobs - Rachel Reeves promised she would not be back for more taxes. Now Labour are only willing to say they will "keep taxes as low as possible" - a phrase that always means only one thing: tax rises are coming.

Just wait until November. You'll be told the books don't balance, and it's everyone else's fault but the Chancellor's. Your family will then be handed the bill. Worse still, Labour have abandoned the tough choices. Welfare reform has been abandoned because Keir Starmer is too weak to stand up to his backbenchers. They now rule the roost - and if Deputy Leadership hopeful Lucy Powell's demand to lift the two-child benefit cap this week is anything to go by, we'll be seeing even greater spending and borrowing.

The truth is simple: Labour are addicted to spending and incapable of discipline. Their spend now, tax later approach is not only failing but morally unfair. Rachel Reeves is taxing your children's future to pay for her failure. Britain cannot afford four more years of Labour's recklessness.

Only the Conservatives, under Kemi Badenoch's leadership, are committed to restoring order to the public finances - rooted in a belief that taxpayers' money must be respected, not squandered. We will live within our means. We will rebuild confidence. And we will deliver a stronger, more stable economy - not just for this generation, but for the next.

Because sound money isn't just good economics - it's a moral obligation and the right thing for the country, our country.