Treasury Minister Fumbles Spin as Borrowing Costs Surge Past 27-Year High – Guido Fawkes

WATCH: Treasury Minister Fumbles Spin as Borrowing Costs Surge Past 27-Year High

Borrowing costs are rising again this morning after pushing through a 27-year high yesterday afternoon. Treasury minister Torsten Bell struggled to spin borrowing costs shooting past Truss levels seen three years ago…

Long-term gilt yields are up to 5.634% this morning, outpacing yesterday’s highs and above April’s high of 5.6%. This is the highest level since 1998. The 10-year yield is also rising to a near three-month high. Torsten Bell said on Sky News this morning:

“Well, we have seen uh interest rates rise right across the world in recent years. Some of that’s related um to wider instability. Some of it’s just related to changes in the economic environment. The job of a government is obviously to respond sensibly to that. And what this government has done is to be clear. We won’t repeat the mistakes of some elements of the Conservative Party in recent years, pretending that you can ignore international markets pressure. We need to make sure that we’re living within our means. That’s why the Chancellor set out clear fiscal rules, which means that current spending, spending that goes on our day-to-day public services is funded, is fully funded out of taxation. Yes, we borrow, but we only borrow for investment projects of the kinds we’ve been discussing earlier.”

While attempting to stave off pressure from Labour backbenchers to change or abandon the fiscal rules Bell has ended up missing the fact that UK borrowing costs are rising at a meaningfully higher rate now than international peers. Higher yields mean tighter belts at the budget. Reeves will say taxes have to rise even higher…