Not necessarily, you can shrink the debt by borrowing less, taxing more or growing the economy or a mixture of all 3. But unpalatable as it is, the government is spending Ł100 billion on interest on its debts a year, thats 10% of total government spending, about 40% of what is spent on the NHS, about 180% of what’s spent on schools and 200% of what is spent on defence, so borrowing does have to come down one way or another because it’s just swallowing a larger and larger part of government spending. As I said a few days ago, somehow the Tories have managed to oversee record tax levels, record debt levels and shit public services all at the same time.
By far away the easiest and best way of achieving this is for the UK - in all but name - to rejoin the EU.* This means rejoining the Single Market and Customs Union.
* Irrespective of potential political barriers at home about rejoining the EU and all the arguments around that, the EU would not have the UK as a member again. Or, at least, not for very long time. We will have to become rule
takers.
Of course, rejoining the SM and CU is not the whole solution. But are totally necessary and the easiest parts to fix since the UK has hardly diverged from SM rules. Further, voters would see the benefits quickly and reward Labour at the following election. Labour just need to be brave, 'get it done', and reap the political benefits at subsequent elections. My fear is that they will fanny about, too scared to do much of anything.
