From Borrowing to Blunders — Labour’s Week of Chaos in Numbers
Reeves’s borrowing, prison blunders and digital delusion — three crises that define Labour’s Britain
This week, the numbers once again cut through the spin — from failed digital policy to record borrowing and growing chaos inside Britain’s prisons.
💻 Digital ID: The policy that locks out pensioners, not criminals
The Government’s plan for a national Digital ID is being sold as a way to strengthen border control. But as with so many grand reforms, the reality will hit closer to home.
Millions of older Britons already struggle to access banking, healthcare and benefits as more services move online. For many, “digital-by-default” isn’t progress — it’s exclusion. Expanding ID requirements risks shutting out the very people who rely most on face-to-face support.
Research shows significant numbers of older people are already struggling to access essential services online. Yet ministers continue to press ahead with a policy that risks turning everyday life into an obstacle course for the elderly and the digitally excluded.
👵 Older people built this country. They paid into the system. They shouldn’t need a QR code to prove they exist.
Read more: Digital ID: The Policy That Locks Out Pensioners, Not Criminals
💷 Rachel Reeves has dug a £92 billion hole in the public finances
Rachel Reeves claims to have “fixed the foundations”. Instead, she’s dug deeper into debt.
Before the election, the Budget watchdog forecast £102.6 billion in borrowing for the 14 months from August 2024 to September 2025. The actual figure is £194.4 billion — that’s £92 billion more than forecast.
Her October 2024 Budget loosened spending further — raising public-sector pay, expanding departmental budgets and doubling down on costly Net Zero commitments. Inflation has crept back up, debt-servicing costs are soaring, and growth has all but stalled.
💸 The result is a widening deficit, higher taxes on working families, and a growing gap between Labour’s economic claims and the financial reality.
Read more: Rachel Reeves Has Dug a £92 Billion Hole in the Public Finances
🚔 More prisoners freed by mistake than in the previous three years combined
Official figures show 199 prisoners were released by mistake between July 2024 and March 2025 — already exceeding the total for the previous three years combined (over the same period).
These aren’t isolated incidents. They expose a system creaking under the strain of overcrowding, staff shortages and rushed sentencing reforms. Each mistaken release is a symptom of deeper dysfunction — and a reminder that the system designed to protect the public is no longer working.
For context: official HMPPS data show the 262 total errors in the full 2024/25 financial year were the highest in at least twenty years — far above the typical range of 40–70 per year that held from 2006 to 2021.
⚠️ When government can’t control who arrives in the country — or who leaves its prisons — it isn’t protecting the public; it’s gambling with it.
Read more: More Prisoners Freed by Mistake Than in the Previous Three Years Combined
📊 What it all means
Three very different stories, but one unmistakable pattern.
Digital ID is not progress — it’s exclusion disguised as reform.
Public finances are deteriorating rapidly, with debt rising faster than forecast.
The justice system is failing in its most basic duty: keeping the public safe.
Different issues, same outcome — over-promising, under-delivering, and losing control.
✍️ Jamie Jenkins
Stats Jamie | Stats, Facts & Opinions
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