Spending review: ‘Debt supertanker’ sends total near £700bn
By politics.co.uk staff
Spending cuts across Whitehall unveiled today are not enough to stop the government’s total expenditure rising, not falling, in 2014/15.
George Osborne blamed the “debt supertanker” for the problem, saying debt interest payments would reach £63 billion by the final year of the current spending review period.
He told MPs in the Commons this lunchtime that government expenditure was the same as set out in the emergency Budget earlier this year.
Spending totals are set to rise to £651 billion next year before hitting £695 billion in 2014/15.
“I can now report to the House that against the plans we inherited, one of the departments which suffers the greatest cut today and at the steepest rate is the Department for Debt Interest,” Mr Osborne said.
Debt interest payments will fall by a total of £5 billion in the next four years – roughly a quarter of the overall jump in interest payments over this period.
