From the archive: Chancellor ‘covering up £60bn a year interest on UK’s debt’ - 17 December, 2009

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling has been accused of covering up the scale of Britain’s mounting debt interest.

The Chancellor appeared before MPs on the Treasury select committee yesterday and refused to give figures estimating how big the interest repayments would be on the UK’s staggering £178 billion annual deficit. Michael Fallon, the senior Tory MP on the committee, grilled Mr Darling over the fact that last week’s Pre-Budget Report had not mentioned that debt interest would hit an estimated £60bn per year by 2013 – roughly double the current amount.

Committee members had been told on Monday by the chief economist at HSBC that annual debt interest would grow to £60bn in four years.