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In a time of sluggish economic growth, the favourite way of squaring the circle of spending more,

but not increasing taxes, is to borrow.

And we have.

Keeping everybody's lights on during the pandemic and homes heated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine

has helped send our national debt up from £1.8 trillion to £2.8 trillion in recent years.

But the question for the Chancellor Rachel Reeves is how much more debt can we afford?

And how much more debt do the markets think we can afford?

So, what's the answer to that?

Step into the briefing room and relatively painlessly.

Together we'll find out.

First, I want to understand how the UK's debt level got so high and who we owe the money to.

Duncan Weldon is an economist and author of 200 years of muddling through.

Duncan, bald first question. How much do we owe in government debt?

Well, the best way to think about government debt is not just as a number, because it will be a really big number,

it's to think of it maybe as a percentage of national income or GDP.

And in those terms, at the moment, British government debt is about 95, 96% of national income.

So government debt is roughly equivalent to the entire output of the British economy in one year. And I want to come on a bit later to some of the

history of that debt. But in the first instance, let's talk about what that debt actually is.

Firstly, who do you owe all this money to? Okay, so how does the British government end up

with a debt? Well, it gets a debt because in any given year it might be spending more than it's

taking in in tax. And that difference is the deficit. And that deficit is funded by borrowing.

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