Interest Rates

Debate between Lord Clarke of Nottingham and Lord Pitt-Watson

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)]

The decision on interest rates is for the independent Monetary Policy Committee, which is part of the Bank of England. If the noble Lord would like to write to it, or write to it through me, I would be very happy to pass his comments on.

[Lord Clarke of Nottingham (Con)]

Will the Government not accept that they face a serious debt crisis, which, admittedly, they inherited? We now have public debt at almost 100% of GDP—more than 90%—and a colossal amount of the tax that the Government collect has to be paid on an ever-mounting level of interest. Will the Government stop saying that they will stick to the fiscal rules, which means that they will stop borrowing in a few years’ time, and take some urgent action to win back the confidence of the market by chasing obvious targets, such as cutting the growth of the welfare budget and scrapping the triple lock to start with?

[Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)]

I agree with many of the noble Lord’s comments. Our debt is way too high and the interest we are paying on the burden of that is very serious. How we go about righting that—as he says, there is a long history, and it is unhelpful to go into it—is a matter of judgment and balance, and it needs to be done over time. I go back to the comments of the chief economist of the IMF: of all the countries it is reviewing, she picks the UK out as the one that, basically, stands out. I hear that there may be some moves a little this way and some a little that way, but I hope that the House will acknowledge the seriousness with which this issue is being treated.