Britain’s debts to balloon by another £300bn

BRITAIN looks set to borrow another £300bn before the Government finally balances the books – fuelling fears over the ballooning national debt.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury watchdog, has warned that the country will not return to the black until 2031 – three decades after the last surplus in 2001.

Analysis by the Mail suggests borrowing will total around £300bn between now and then as the nation continues to spend more than it receives in tax.

The projected 30-year borrowing binge – currently totalling £1.5trillion – would be the longest in British history, eclipsing that seen during the Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars.

And Labour wants to borrow even more in a dramatic lurch to the Left – ditching austerity and pushing the debt even higher.

With the national debt already heading towards £ 2trillion, experts fear Britain is now vulnerable to another economic shock.

Experts say the nation must continue on its path of cutting the deficit. In a stark warning last month, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said: ‘Continuing deficit reduction is critical to create further room to respond to future shocks.’

Richard Sharp, a senior Bank of England official, said: ‘A highly indebted government has less capacity to react to crises. We cannot assume that further shocks do not materialise. Our national resilience is fragile and as such our margin for error is small. We have a debt level which gives us limited capacity for national manoeuvre.’

Britain last ran a surplus in 2001 before then- chancellor Gordon Brown embarked on a borrowing and spending binge.

Since then, around £500bn of taxpayers’ money has been spent on debt interest payments alone.

The bill looks set to rise by another £500bn before Britain is back in the black - taking total interest payments over the 30year period to £1trillion.

The cost of servicing the national debt is leeching billions of pounds of much-needed cash away from the creaking public services.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘Britain is up to its neck in debt, yet politicians of all parties continue to make extraordinary spending pledges that puts huge pressure on taxpayers.’ Borrowing hit a record £153bn in 2009-10 under Labour.

George Osborne initially pledged to balance the books by 2015. Philip hammond has since pushed the deadline back to 2025. But the OBR does not expect Britain to be back in the black until 2031.

According to the OBR, hammond is on course to borrow another £212.6bn over a six-year period from 2017-18 to 2022-23. In that time, the deficit is set to fall from £49.9bn this year to £25.6bn in 2022-23.

Analysis by the Mail shows the Government is likely to borrow another £91bn in the subsequent seven years before finally balancing the books in 2030-31.

Michael Izza, chief executive of the ICAEW, said: ‘Our debts continue to grow and eliminating the deficit is rapidly becoming a fiveparliament problem and a millstone for future generations.’