From the archive: Chancellor ‘covering up £60bn a year interest on UK’s debt’ - 17 December, 2009
The Chancellor appeared before MPs on the Treasury select committee yesterday and refused to give figures estimating how big the interest repayments would be on the UK’s staggering £178 billion annual deficit. Michael Fallon, the senior Tory MP on the committee, grilled Mr Darling over the fact that last week’s Pre-Budget Report had not mentioned that debt interest would hit an estimated £60bn per year by 2013 – roughly double the current amount.
Committee members had been told on Monday by the chief economist at HSBC that annual debt interest would grow to £60bn in four years.