NEW by @PhilAldrick There is an £85 billion black hole in Andy Burnham’s spending plans The government says the changes to the triple lock will save £15 billion by 2040, or £11 billion in today’s money, and that he will not raise taxes to pay for social care That doesn’t come close to covering any realistic estimates for the new free-at-the-point-of-use national care service Burnham has promised “Burnham’s sums do not seem to add up,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB And there is a bigger threat The interest Britain is paying on its £2.9 trillion debt pile is rising automatically as cheaper issuance in the past rolls off and is replaced by expensive new borrowing Within a decade, if borrowing costs remain where they are, the government will pay £85 billion a year more in today’s money just to hold the debt burden steady at 94% of GDP, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research