Quaint

Chancellor’s headroom to halve because of Iran war inflation and weak growth

Chancellor John Healey will face pressure to raise taxes or cut spending at next month’s Budget, as soaring borrowing costs because of the Iran war and weaker growth has wiped nearly £12 billion off the Government’s fiscal headroom, according to a new report.

The latest KPMG economic outlook estimates that Mr Healey could be left with headroom of about £12 billion in the autumn, down from £23.6 billion at the time of the spring forecast.

It said rising borrowing costs on the UK’s debt after the Middle East conflict has already cut about £9 billion off the headroom, with sluggish growth and expected downgrades from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) likely to to reduce it by about another £2 billion.


Surely referring to John Healey by the quaint olde worlde title of 'Chancellor of the Exchequer' has become an embarrassing anachronism. With a UK national debt of about £3 trillion, His Majesty's Treasury must be knee-deep in IOUs and very little treasure.

It would more honest if we were to replace the title 'Chancellor of the Exchequer' with some reference to a role which eschews plundering the economy as an answer to everything. A role tasked with cutting government waste, enforcing budgetary control, abolishing Net Zero, eliminating the patronage network...

Nope, that's all too fanciful.