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Austerity 'leaves Britain further in debt than expected'
Country owes £10.7 billion more than official forecasts suggested thanks to counterproductive Tory policies
George Osborne's “counterproductive” austerity measures have left Britain £10.7 billion further in the red than was expected, official figures showed yesterday.
Underlying public-sector debt was £1.27 trillion for the year to the end of March, ahead of the £1.26trn forecast last month by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
It meant that the sum owed by the public purse rose more steeply than predicted to 75.8 per cent of GDP, compared to the 74.5 per cent OBR forecast.
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