19 June 2020updated 30 Aug 2021 1:07pm

The UK’s national debt has surged to 100 per cent – but there is no need for austerity

Britain can afford to borrow at the lowest-ever rates to support living standards and public services.

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (L) looks on beside Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) at a news conference addressing the government's response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, inside 10 Downing Street in London on March 17, 2020 - Britain on Tuesday, March 17, ramped up its response to the escalating coronavirus outbreak after the government imposed unprecedented peacetime measures prompted by scientific advice that infections and deaths would spiral without drastic action. (Photo by Matt Dunham / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MATT DUNHAM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The UK’s national debt has now reached a level that will make fiscal conservatives tremble with fear: 100.9 per cent of GDP (£1.95trn). In other words, total borrowing now exceeds the size of the world’s sixth-largest economy. Not since 1963 has Britain’s financial black hole been so large.

Borrowing over the first two months of this financial year (April and May) was £103.7bn, and the Office for Budget Responsibility has forecast a deficit of £298.4bn for 2020 – the largest since the Second World War. The combined impact of the lockdown and higher government spending (such as on the furlough scheme) has destroyed any remaining Conservative ambition to “balance the books”.