Rachel Reeves taking leaf out of EU’s book to ‘fiddle books’ | Politics | News [Video]

Rachel Reeves discusses work to grow UK economy

Rachel Reeves is taking a leaf out of the European Union‘s book as she explores ways of getting around tight fiscal rules relating to national debt in order to spend more public money, a UK banking expert has claimed.

Bob Lyddon was commenting after the Chancellor travelled to North America last week to outline her vision for growth and “bang the drum” for a new National Wealth Fund, backed by £7.3 billion to catalyse further private investment.

However, Mr Lyddon, the founder of Lyddon Consulting Services, suggested her words masked an attempt to, in effect, fiddle the books.

He told Express.co.uk: “According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the UK’s national debt in June was 99.5 percent of the size of the economy – the GDP or Gross National Product, which is about £2.3 trillion.

“Rachel Reeves wants to spend more. Creating room and quickly requires some rebasing of the definition of the national debt, or ‘creative …