It is a commonplace of today’s political debate that the Conservative government (with the help of its coalition partners and other supporters) has reduced the national debt. Such statements are widely believed, and always go unchallenged. They play an important part in supporting the imagined economic competence of the Conservatives when compared with previous Labour governments. But they are entirely false.
You quote Boris Johnson as saying: “It was always right to reduce the national debt and I pledge as prime minister to continue to reduce the national debt” (Johnson pledges to make immigrants learn English so that they ‘feel British’, 6 July). In fact, since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, the national debt has increased by £800bn, or 80%.
John Elgar
Sevenoaks, Kent
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