UK borrows record £127.9bn in quarter

Borrowing by the UK rocketed to a record £127.9 billion in the three months to June as the public finances were wrecked by falling tax revenues and a spending spree to fight Covid-19. The quarterly deficit is the largest since monitoring started in 1993, the Office for National Statistics said, and double the entire level of borrowing for the previous financial year. It dwarfs even the worst days of the financial crisis and is fuelling fears of brutal cuts and massive tax rises.

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