{"id":32008,"date":"2026-05-09T05:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32008\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:11:10","slug":"bond-vigilantes-eye-britain-amid-post-election-turmoil-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32008\/","title":{"rendered":"Bond vigilantes eye Britain amid post-election turmoil \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bond vigilantes are now actively circling the United Kingdom as inflation from higher energy prices threatens the government\u2019s delicate fiscal position and the ruling Labour Party suffered heavy losses in the local and regional elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">British prime minister Keir Starmer struck a defiant tone in the face of calls from some of his MPs to quit, insisting he remained as determined as ever to deliver on the promises on which he was elected less than two years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, even before the election result, the yield on 10-year UK bonds (gilts) soared to their highest since 2008, breaching the 5 per cent barrier, as war in the Middle East threatens to shrink tax receipts and evaporate fiscal headroom. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/>PrepayPower are hiking their prices &#8211; will other energy suppliers soon follow suit?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The brewing political turmoil in Downing Street could trigger another hike in UK borrowing costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bond markets fear the election result could topple the Starmer-[Rachel] Reeves regime, heralding a leftward shift with consequences for investors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe market is worried about a) political uncertainty and b) that any replacement of the Starmer-Reeves regime would be from the left, implying more spending and potentially unwinding all the fiscal repairs carried out at the last budget,\u201d said Neil Wilson of Saxo Bank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIn the budget last November, the chancellor\u2019s move to raise taxes and fiscal headroom eased concerns about debt sustainability and immediate fiscal risks,\u201d he said. \u201cReeves is seen as the most \u2018market-friendly\u2019 possible candidate as chancellor within the government.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The front-runner to succeed Starmer, Andy Burnham, has talked about how the UK should not be \u201cin hock\u201d to bond markets; the sort of language that markets hate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Former prime minister Liz Truss\u2019s failed tax-cutting budget triggered a run on British government bonds, a surprise Bank of England intervention in late 2022, and an eventual toppling of her government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The fears of a similar attack by bond vigilantes could dissuade some in Labour from calling for Starmer\u2019s head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bond vigilantes are now actively circling the United Kingdom as inflation from higher energy prices threatens the government\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7786,2231,13,13899,94,4655,182],"class_list":{"0":"post-32008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-bonds","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-cantillon","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-labour-party-uk","14":"tag-rachel-reeves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116542903617303619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}