Leading bond investors have urged chancellor Rachel Reeves to cut spending in her November Budget rather than focus solely on tax rises, after worries over mounting UK debts helped send borrowing costs to their highest level in decades.
The UK’s 30-year borrowing costs reached their highest since 1998 this week, climbing to 5.7 per cent on Tuesday as mounting concern over the public finances combined with a global move higher in long-term yields. The pound dropped more than 1 per cent.
The government rushed to reassure markets, with Lord Spencer Livermore, Treasury minister, insisting that its fiscal rules would be “non-negotiable” when Reeves puts together her Budget, expected to take place in mid-to-late November.