At Prime Minister’s questions today, Andy Burnham was pressed by Kemi Badenoch on the sharp rise in government borrowing costs over the last few days. This is what he had to say:

‘The turbulence on global markets is because of that exposure that they [the Conservatives] left behind. We are turning the corner. In the first half of this year, we have had the fastest growth in the G7. Borrowing fell to its lowest level in six years. We are cutting the deficit faster than any other G7 country. I say to the Conservative party and particularly to the right hon. Lady: that is problem solving rather than point scoring.’

Given Keir Starmer’s decision to resign his seat on the first proper day of this new government, it’s very gracious of Burnham to excuse his predecessor’s fiscal record by omission. Nonetheless, the government’s problems with the bond market owe little to Rishi Sunak, as a quick glance at our bond yields chart will show you:

Before Labour took power in 2024 Britain’s ten-year government bonds were roughly within the range of other G7 countries. At the start of July 2024, the month that Starmer became prime minister, the ten-year gilt yield was 4.47 per cent in the United States and 4.25 per cent in the UK. But from the beginning of last year we have been the international fiscal basketcase. At time of writing ten-year gilt yields for Britain are 5.16 per cent. This puts us well above temperamentally spendthrift countries like Italy (4.2 per cent) and Greece (4.1 per cent). Burnham will have to come up with a better response to this than pointing the finger at Rishi Sunak.