In a veiled dig at Andy Burnham, Ms Reeves also said the only way to stop Britain being “in hock” to the bond markets was to borrow less.
“We are very reliant on the kindness of strangers to fund government spending in the UK, because we have taken on so much debt. Those were the decisions of previous Conservative governments,” the Chancellor said.
“You can see through our plans that we are going to be reducing that debt, by reducing the size of the Budget deficit consistently during the course of this parliament.
“That will make us less reliant, less in hock, if you will, to bond markets. But at the moment we do very much rely on the bond markets to finance government spending and to refinance the high levels of debt that we have got.”
The Chancellor said her plan to reduce the deficit would bring down borrowing costs and lessen the nation’s reliance on the global investors who fund the near-£3tn national debt.
