Rubbish Check
Daily Mail Money · 29 October 2026
source“Britain faces £850bn interest bill as towering debt drives up taxes and hurts public services”
R4/ 10
Selective
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Daily Mail's claim that Britain faces an "£850bn interest bill" driving up taxes a 4/10 because the cash figures check out against the OBR's own Budget 2026 forecasts, but the headline omits that debt is projected to fall as a share of GDP over the same period.
The Verdict
Selective. The core numbers are accurate and traceable to the OBR's October 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, so this isn't fabrication. But the headline leans on the scariest available framing, cumulative cash totals and a tenfold rise since 2000, while skipping the debt-to-GDP trajectory that gives a less alarming picture of the trend, and it compresses a multi-driver tax story into a single cause.
What actually happened
The OBR's Budget 2026 forecast puts this year's debt interest bill at £123.9billion, £14bn-£14.5bn higher than its March forecast, with cumulative interest costs reaching £854billion by 2031-32. National debt stands at roughly £3trillion now and is forecast to rise toward £3.7trillion by 2031-32. Chancellor Healey raised several taxes and kept income tax thresholds frozen in the same Budget, against a backdrop of elevated global borrowing costs following the US-Iran war's inflationary shock.
Key facts
- Debt interest bill this year: £123.9bn, £14.5bn above the March forecast, as the article states, closely matching independent reporting of a "£14bn higher this year as a result of higher debt interest" figure.
- Cumulative six-year interest bill: £854bn to 2031-32, some £70bn above the March projection, per the OBR report cited in the article.
- National debt: around £3trillion now, forecast to reach £3.7trillion by 2031-32, versus £350bn at the turn of the century.
- Ten-year gilt yield: around 5.35% during the Budget statement, near a 19-year high above 5.5%; 30-year yields near their highest since 1998.
- Debt as a share of GDP is separately forecast by the OBR to fall rather than rise through the forecast period, per independent Budget summaries, a figure the headline and article do not mention.
What to watch for
Watch whether the debt-to-GDP trajectory (falling, per separate OBR tables) gets more airtime in follow-up coverage, since it cuts against the "spiralling" framing. Also watch the 2027 fiscal event analysts flagged as the next real test for gilt markets, and whether tax rises get re-attributed to spending commitments rather than debt interest alone.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
