FLASHBACK: ‘Economist’ Reeves Confuses National Debt with Deficit
Those in the City were left aggrieved after Reeves touted herself as a safe pair of hands in the Treasury because of her long history as an ‘economist’, which turned out to be embellishment of her CV as Guido first revealed. As co-conspirators will know, Reeves was handling complaints at Halifax rather than actual economic policies – helpful experience in hindsight…
Turns out Reeves has never been great with numbers. Back in 2012, two years into her time as an MP, she was featured in a documentary called “Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story” about the UK’s ballooning national debt—and how MPs didn’t even know what it was. Reeves was one of those interviewed who didn’t know. Asked for the figure, she confidently answered, “about £156 billion.” Wrong. That was the deficit (the difference between government revenue and spending), not the national debt, which was around £1.43 trillion at the time. A giant red cross helpfully appears on screen to mark her blunder. Liz Truss also answered incorrectly. Not the only thing the two have in common…
