That's the kind of lazy logic that doesn't help matters (IMO), which given that he has been around the political world quite a lot when he advised Corbyn he should know better. A couple of things, for instance, would see debt going up for "any" government. The first of these, is obviously Covid, which saw a huge investment by the government alongside a drop in tax income as large chunks of the economy shut down. The second major trend is a demographic one. It was posted a day or so ago that the vast majority of social spending these days is on pensions. There isn't a single political party that dares raising the retirement age or breaking the triple lock, so we're going to get ever greater proportions of social spending going on pensioners as they live longer and retire in greater numbers. And lastly, of course, the invasion of Ukraine has triggered an inflationary period that will see everything cost more, which I'd imagine will see debt rise.
I don't know how much those things contribute to the growth outlined in that tweet, but I'd imagine they contribute a fair chunk. That's not to let this abominable government off the hook as they have been truly dreadful, but I'd expect more from a supposed academic than his lazy reasoning.
www.jrf.org.uk
