The post-budget gilt market trauma has not stopped. Long-term borrowing costs have this morning risen to their highest level since 1998. 30-year gilt yields climbed three basis points to 5.21%. They now sit at 5.274%. They were at 4.79% the day before the budget. Investors are pricing in worries over Labour’s expanding debt and reduced scope for interest rate cuts…
Highest 30-year yield under Liz Truss was 5.06%. Meanwhile closely-watched 10-year gilts have jumped back up to a meaningfully high 4.63%. Reminder: the Truss spike peaked at 3.47% the day after Kwasi’s budget…
UPDATE: Downing Street claims in response that “we will not repeat the budget like we had again.” Doesn’t fill you with confidence…
Meanwhile shadow Business and Trade secretary Andrew Griffith says the “cost of this will be paid by businesses and households in higher interest rates and it comes when firms are already reeling from Labour’s Jobs Tax, biz rates rise, and higher costs from the union-inspired Employment Bill.” Four budgets to go…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”