Rachel Reeves is borrowing £11.6 billion more than this time last year.
Figures on public finances, published this morning by the Office for National Statistics, revealed that in the financial year to January we borrowed over £118 billion.
This is £11.6 billion more than we borrowed this time last year – and the fourth highest borrowing period since 1993, when comparable records began.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimated that we would be borrowing £13 billion less by this point in the year, according to The Spectator.
Reeves's fiscal rules include the current budget being on balance and some welfare spending must remain below a certain level.
She also aimed to reduce net public debt: we should borrow less.
Reports suggest that the Chancellor has ran out of fiscal 'headroom', and hasn't stuck to her own fiscal rules.
Reeves could now raise taxes to cover the price of borrowing – or slash public spending.
January usually brings good news for the Treasury as self-assessment tax returns come in, and this has led to the largest January surplus since records began.
According to the ONS, the public sector had a £15 billion surplus last month, £0.8 billion more than last year.
Reeves' decision to raise taxes to their highest post-war level seems to be working, as HMRC recording £36.2 billion in income from self-assessment and capital gains tax in January.
This is almost £4 billion more than last year and the highest January tax revenue ever.
However, the self-assessment tax revenue of just under £26 billion was £3 billion less than the OBR had hoped for.
Capital gains taxes also brought in over £1 billion less than expected.
This reduces any of the Chancellor's remaining fiscal flexibility.
The Spectator reports that Labour says they are going "through every pound spent, line by line".
