What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Britain's borrowing has risen by £2 billion in a blow to the Tories' claim to be tackling the deficit.

The Office for National Statistics said public sector net borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, increased by £2 billion to £6.9 billion in June compared with the same month last year.

And current estimates by the Office for Budget Responsibility put the deficit at £58.3 billion.

The news of today’s borrowing comes just a week after the Office for Budget Responsibility, set up by the Tories in 2010, had warned the government that its spending targets “would be missed by a large margin” making the UK economy “much more sensitive” to higher inflation and interest rates.

Prime Minister Theresa May has now vowed to eliminate the deficit by the “middle of next decade” - a full decade after George Osborne claimed it would happen.

(Image: Getty)

Responding to the figures a Treasury spokesman has said: “Today’s release shows that our national debt, at £65,000 for every household, is still too high and leaves us vulnerable to any future shocks.

“That is why we have a credible fiscal plan to get debt falling and deliver the sound public finances needed for a stronger economy and higher living standards.”

But Shadow Chancellor John McDonell criticised the government saying: “These figures reveal the continued failure of Philip Hammond and the Conservatives.

“Seven years of Tory cuts have left our economy weaker, with falling wages, yet the deficit has not been eliminated two years after they claimed it would be, and the national debt continues to rise.

“The Chancellor should stop handing out massive tax giveaways to big businesses and the super-rich, and instead give our hard-pressed public sector workers a pay rise, so we can end the travesty in our country of nurses having to rely on food banks.”

Former Business Secretary and Lib Dem Leader Sir Vince Cable added: “This rise in borrowing is a direct consequence of the dramatic fall in the pound since last year’s Brexit vote.

“Instead of the £350 million for the NHS that was promised, people’s living standards are falling and borrowing is going up.

“It shows why we need to offer people an exit from Brexit.

“Nobody voted last year to become poorer or to increase the amount of their taxes spent on paying down the national debt.”