Ex-Bank of England Deputy: “Not Even a Budget” | Howard Davies on Britain’s £3 Trillion Debt

Politics Unleashed · Nov 1, 2026 · 47m

Everyone’s talking about the budget. We’re talking about it differently.

Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Howard Davies joins us to give his verdict on Andy Burnham’s first budget. Davies has also run the Audit Commission, been Director General of the CBI, chaired banks and worked inside the Treasury. His verdict: it was barely a budget at all.

00:00 Intro

00:33 The “circuit breaker” that wasn’t

01:40 “Not even a budget”: first reaction

02:36 Defence: Healey, Putin and the 1,000-day clock

07:46 Can the welfare reviews break the logjam?

10:04 Was it all Jeremy Hunt’s fault?

12:05…