22/09/2026
ROBERT JENRICK - REFORM UK :
⏰ If tomorrow morning, Britain’s National Debt ticks over £3 trillion for the first time in history, it won’t be the result of one failure but an entire generation's worth. 25 years of fiscal incontinence, under both Tory and Labour Chancellors.
Even the highest taxes on record can't match ever-higher spending. So, every year without fail, the nation’s credit card bill grows. All because Chancellors wouldn’t make the hard choices. They preferred to lie to the electorate, and perhaps to themselves, that this giant Ponzi scheme was all fine.
In fact it meant more debt interest for taxpayers, now and forever. Today, we spend more on interest than on defence. By 2030, it will exceed schools, policing, and the entire justice system combined. Left unchecked, our debt will be three times the size of our entire economy in 50 years. That is a bill our grandchildren will have to pay.
Meanwhile, Labour is unwilling to engage with reality. Andy Burnham is happy to write cheques, but not to explain how we pay them. Just as when he said we needn’t be “in hock to the bond markets”, he seems oblivious to our precarious position. He’s the wrong man at the wrong time. A fair weather Prime Minister, sailing into stormy seas.
We cannot carry on like this. Countries can go bust. Even the USA, with its almighty dollar, is beginning to discover the limits to debt growth.
That’s why Reform has identified over £80 billion in annual savings: From benefits, Net Zero, and Whitehall. And that number will keep growing, as we do the work in opposition that Labour failed to do.
We will spend some of the £80 billion on securing our border and increasing the tax-free personal allowance to £15k to make work pay. But we will also bring down debt.
And we will reduce the interest bill too. Our interest rates are currently higher than those of Greece or Italy, because investors don’t have confidence in the government’s policies, the dismal economic leadership we’ve had in recent times - and not just Liz Truss - or indeed in sterling. By cutting spending, reducing energy prices and freeing up the housing and labour markets, we’ll reduce both borrowing and inflation and therefore interest rates.
We won’t fix a 25-year problem overnight. But unlike Rishi Sunak, Rachel Reeves, or it seems John Healey, we will make the choices that will start.
