Is the tax take the highest for 70 years?

The UK economy grew faster than Germany over the past year, but not France or Italy. Mr Hunt is right to say that for the whole period that the Conservatives have been in power, the UK has grown faster than all three of them. But if we look at GDP per person, which excludes the effect of the growing population, Germany has actually performed better than the UK during that period. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts it will collect 37.

1p of every pound generated in the economy in 2028-29. That would be the highest level in 80 years. One third of the 0. 6p-per-pound fall between November and today’s projections is due to measures announced by the government.

The chancellor’s fiscal rule is that debt should be on track to fall in five years. But it does not mean debt is falling now or in the next few years. The rest is due to changes in what is expected to happen to the economy. Keir Starmer criticised debt levels by referring to the “nation’s credit card.

He previously got into trouble with the statistics regulator for claiming that debt was falling when he meant it was predicted to fall in five years. Many commentators have warned that it is misleading to refer to the country’s finances in the same way as a household. Japan’s government debt is currently more than 260% of its GDP. Looking across the G7 - a group of advanced economies - debt is well over 100% of GDP for Canada, France, Italy and the US.

Germany’s debt is considerably lower than the UK’s.

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