Last week Richard wrote a piece for The Telegraph.
Commenting he said:
The Prime Minister is running up debt on the nation's credit card - leaving it for the next generation to pick up. If we don't face up to hard choices now, we are deciding to make the life chances of our children and grandchildren harder.
The Prime Minister is acting like the guy at the bar who wants to be popular so offers everyone a drink and then finds his card gets declined. He needs to pull his head out of the sand and be honest with the public (and himself) about Britain's inevitable spending cuts.
You can read my thoughts on where Britain goes from here in The Telegraph at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/19/burnham-in-denial-about-bond-crisis/
Full text of the article can be read below:
It has been a bad week for the British economy. On Tuesday, UK borrowing costs reached their highest level since 1998. On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics confirmed inflation had risen above 3 per cent. On Thursday, the Bank of England warned that interest rate hikes were on the horizon.
Inflation could rise above 4 per cent next year, more than twice the Bank’s target, and more than twice the rate when the Conservatives left office. Forecasts show that UK energy prices are likely to soar again next year, potentially by around 30 per cent.
The prospect of a further deterioration in the bond markets can no longer be dismissed. This means more pressure on people already taking a strong grip on their weekly budget while trying to save a little in case things get worse.
But instead of having a government getting a grip, the Burnham Government is in complete denial. A summer of more spending promises, caving in to big pay demands from favoured unions and putting more welfare expenditure before national defence.
Faced with intensifying fiscal pressures, Labour has turned to the national credit card, adding hundreds of billions to the national debt, which is now approaching a staggering £3tn.
The Prime Minister is a literary man. Perhaps he should remind himself of the quote in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: “How did you go bankrupt? Gradually, then suddenly.”
The Prime Minister has warned that “difficult choices” lie ahead at the Budget. He is right about that. But he is acting like the guy at the bar who wants to be popular so offers everyone a drink and then finds his card gets declined. Mr Burnham cannot bear to face the reality that Britain can no longer afford to pay.
The Government must scale back its spending, or we will go under. If we don’t face up to hard choices, we are making the purposeful decision to make the life chances of our children and grandchildren harder. Families do not try to pass on their debts to their children, and neither should the Government.
For all Mr Burnham’s talk of restoring “hope in every heart”, he is tying a millstone around the neck of future generations, writing an IOU for our children and grandchildren to cover.
Labour has fallen in love with the 1970s again: the era of big government, militant unions and a Chancellor having to go cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout.
Our country had to take some tough medicine then, and a Conservative government delivered it.
Today, the same party is the only one serious about backing the British people to get our country back on the right track.
We are prepared to face the difficult choices, fairly and responsibly, and act by cutting spending then cutting taxes so we can grow our economy, sticking to our golden economic rule that at least half of every pound saved must be spent on paying down the deficit.
While Labour and Reform stick their fingers in their ears and make promises they know they can never keep, the Conservatives are speaking the hard truths about the state of the economy and the country and have a plan to give our children a brighter future. This is not a choice. It is a fiscal duty.
