"Ex-Treasury minister on how global investors have put the UK on ‘suicide watch’ over debt fears"
Telegraph: 26th January 2025: Report on conversation with previous Treasury minister incharge of Whitehall efficiency about how the civil services is crippling Britain
"...Lord Agnew said: “Already the public markets are saying, ‘You’re on suicide watch, we’re watching you carefully."
“My own view is that we will face an IMF moment of 1976. There’ll be a point at which the public debt markets do not believe the narrative that this country can continue to borrow money and use it as ineffectively as we are using it.” ...His stark warning comes as economists predict the latest rise in gilt yields will add around £8bn to the Government’s debt interest bill, according to Capital Economics...
...At the heart of the issue is a debate over who really has control over government decisions, as Lord Agnew signals that civil servants are largely at fault.
...His frustration over the civil service boiled over back in 2022 when he resigned as Treasury minister at the despatch box, attacking the Government’s failure to claw back billions of pounds lost to fraud.
... “The failure of the British state is blocking economic growth, exacerbating the decline of the nation’s health, sabotaging the building of housing and infrastructure and systematically eroding our status as a first world economy.”...He claims that the shielded status of civil servants is part of the problem, as he says it is far too difficult to sack underperformers: “It would have been easier for me to win the lottery.”...
...He also urged her to abandon attempts to rely on regulators for growth. “Someone who makes a career as a regulator is someone who is risk-averse, lacks imagination and doesn’t understand wealth creation,” he said. “It is bizarre, frankly, that she should go to these people. It’s a bit like going to a fox and saying ‘How can you kill a few fewer chickens?’”