Labour’s debt binge dilemma

Labour has a populist argument against Liz Truss’s spendaholic plans to borrow money from the international money markets and direct it into the bank accounts of the privileged. ‘What do you get?’ Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer will ask the public. ‘And who picks up the bill?’

For the overwhelming majority of the population the answer to ‘what do you get?’ is ‘not much’. And to ‘who picks up the bill?’ is ‘me, people like me, and our children and grandchildren’.

The Conservative class interest in rewarding its supporters looks like a gift to the opposition. But the gift is not as generous as it appears. For two months now, centrist members of the shadow cabinet have told me that they worry about the consequences of a Conservative debt binge. They fear that the left will say: if Truss can borrow like no tomorrow for her favoured causes, Labour should do the same for theirs.