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Should the government worry about debt?

The UK has record levels of government debt and spends more on paying debt interest than on defence or education. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the implications.

In a time of sluggish economic growth, the favourite way of squaring the circle of spending more but not increasing taxes is to borrow - and we have.

Keeping everybody’s lights on during the pandemic and homes heated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine has helped send our national debt up from £1.8 trillion to £2.8 trillion in recent years.

But the question for the chancellor Rachel Reeves is how much more debt we can afford - and how much more debt do the markets think we can afford?

So what’s the answer to that?

Guests:

Duncan Weldon, economist and author of 'Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through'
Mehreen Khan, economics editor of The Times
Chris Giles, economics editor of The Financial Times

Producers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Sally Abrahams
Productions co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Available now

29 minutes

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  • Thu 7 Aug 2025 16:00
  • Fri 8 Aug 2025 05:04
  • Mon 11 Aug 2025 20:00

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