BBC Radio Host Schools Treasury Secretary Laura Trott In ‘Really Basic’ Economics

Treasury Minister Laura Trott suffered a disastrous interview with BBC host Evan Davis Thursday after the journalist challenged an apparent gap in her understanding of the nation’s economic trajectory.

During a tense exchange on BBC Radio 4 Davis questioned the government’s “puzzling” pre-election promise to cut taxes, when one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s central pledges was reducing national debt while the national debt continued to go up.

Trott, who sits just below Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the Treasury’s pecking order, claimed that debt was decreasing as a proportion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The minister told the journalist: “One of our fiscal rules is that debt needs to be falling over the five year fiscal forecast as a percentage of GDP, which it is.”

“No, it’s higher in five years than now,” Davis said.

“Not as a percentage of GDP,” Trott replied.

“Yeah, it’s higher. It’s going up,” the host reiterated. “It’s lower in the fifth year relative to the fourth year, but it’s going up. Debt goes up.”

Davis began to read out forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which anticipates a rise in debt from 89% of GDP in 2023-24 to a peak of 93.2% in 2026-27 before a slight retreat to 92.8% by 2028-29.

He continued: “It goes down at the end of five years a little bit, that doesn’t mean debt is going down. It means debt is going up. It’s higher in five years than now.”

“It’s falling as a percentage…” Trott attempted.

“No, it’s falling as a percentage of GDP,” Davis said.

“This is really basic,” he added. “I’m amazed you don’t know that debt is rising.”

Trott excused herself: “I’m not sure.. I think… I need to have the figures… I’ve got different figures… which I just… which… so I think we just need to.”

Falling back, Trott submitted that the government would not act irresponsibly outside of its fiscal rules.