Gordon McKee, the MP for Glasgow South, has won praise for his humour and originality in explaining the country’s ballooning debt pile. A Scottish Labour MP has went viral after using biscuits to explain why the UK’s national debt is ballooning. Gordon McKee, who represents Glasgow South, uses custard creams and bourbons to explain in simple terms how deeply in the red the country is. The MP, 31, describes the country’s economic situation as being like “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”. The video has been viewed almost two million times after being shared on TikTok and X on Monday morning. It comes just hours before Rachel Reeves will make her long-awaited Budget statement in the House of Commons. McKee, was one of the new Scottish Labour MP elected last year, explains in the video: “There’s a reason Britain feels broke, and it’s probably not what you think. I’m going to explain, but first of all you need to understand one thing: it’s called debt-to-GDP ratio. It sounds boring, it kind of is boring, but it’s important.” Holding a chocolate bourbon in one hand to represent the UK’s debt and a custard cream representing the country’s wealth, he adds: “When I was born in 1994 it was about 30 per cent. In other words, 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. READ MORE : Five Budget changes that could affect Scots when Rachel Reeves makes big announcementREAD MORE : Pro-Scottish independence social media accounts linked to ‘coordinated influence operation based in Iran’ “So the debt then jumps to around 60%. Over the next 10 years of Tory government, it rises to about 80%. Then some guy eats a bat in Wuhan and now nobody can go to work, so the government has to borrow even more money. And today, Britain’s debt-to-GDP ration is about 100%. “But the weirdest thing is that’s not even the main problem because in France the debt-to-GDP ratio is 113%, in America it’s 120%, Japan’s 240%. “What’s really mad is 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. “Think of it like this: Japan is your mate who’s 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 the 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. “So the people who lend the government money are starting to charge a lot more for it. “We’re now in the crazy position where eight per cent of all of the money the government spends is just servicing debt. That’s more than double the entire defence budget, and if you’re spending more servicing your debt than you are defending your country, that is not good.” The MP than invites viewers to follow his X account to see part two of his video setting out how he thinks the government can get out of this mess. The Record has asked McKee for comment.
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