Glasgow Labour MP goes viral after explaining UK debt with custard creams

A Labour MP has gone viral on social media after explaining UK debt with custard creams and bourbon biscuits.

Gordon McKee took to X on Tuesday ahead of the UK Budget announcement to explain the UK’s growing debt crisis, illustrated by piles of biscuits.

After just an hour online, the video had been viewed almost two million times.

“There’s a reason Britain feels broke, and it’s probably not what you think,” the 31-year-old Glasgow South MP said in the video.

As the chancellor urged Labour MPs to back her forthcoming Budget on Tuesday, McKee took to social media to explain that the UK’s financial problems come down to the nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio.

“It basically means how much debt the government has compared to how rich the country is,” McKee explained.

In 1994, he said the UK’s debt-to-GDP ratio was about 30%.

“For every pound the country made, the government owed 30p in debt, and it stayed that way until around 2008 when the banks ran out of money, and we had to bail them out,” he explained in the video.

After 2008, the UK’s debt ratio jumped to 60%, and over the next ten years, he said it climbed to about 80%.

During the global Covid pandemic, McKee said the UK Government was forced to borrow even more money, pushing the debt ratio even higher.

Today, Britain’s debt-to-GDP ratio is “roughly 100%”, but he said the main problem is the UK’s cost of borrowing.

McKee highlighted that other countries around the world, like the United States (120%), France (113%), and Japan (240%), have even higher debt ratios than the UK, but ultimately pay less interest on their debt.

“Britain is paying more interest on its debt than any of these countries because the people lending money to the government aren’t just looking at the total amount of debt, but how quickly it’s racking up,” he explained.

“Think of it like this: Japan is your mate who is always in his overdraft; America’s the guy who spends a lot but always shows up to work; Britain was the sensible one, but we’ve bought a dog, a new car, and a hair transplant all in one month.

“We’ve pretended that we’ve had a big pay increase, but in reality, we’ve just got a credit card with a lot of debt.”

In a follow up video, McKee suggested that the Government “should stop borrowing like it’s on Klarna” and try to raise more money by “taxing the rich”.

Lastly, McKee added: “The other part of the problem is that the economy hasn’t really grown. If you get economic growth, the debt-to-GDP ratio gets better.”

He promised to share more of his thoughts about economic growth in a separate video on Tuesday.