The British government has insisted it has no idea how much debt it owes to foreign states, including basically hostile powers such as Russia and Communist China.
The Cabinet Office, which supports the Prime Minister and acts as “the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury”, according to its website, was asked by Breitbart London to disclose “any complete or partial estimates of foreign official holdings (holdings by foreign governments and central banks) of British government and/or Bank of England debt”, as well as debt owed to foreign Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and foreign State/Government-Owned Enterprises (SOEs/GOEs), under the Freedom of Information Act.
Incredibly, the Cabinet Office responded that “following a search of our paper and electronic records, we have established that the information you requested is not held” and suggested contacting the Treasury — but they have also previously claimed they have no idea how much money the British state owes to foreign states.
Breitbart London requested an internal review of this response, not finding it credible that Cabinet ministers are unable to be told how much of the country’s massive annual debt interest payments — £69.9 billion in FYE March 2022; far more than all military spending, for example — are going into the coffers of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, among others.
It seems absolutely probably that, for national security purposes at least, the government must know how much money it owes to foreign governments — knowledge that would inform its policy towards not only the likes of Russia and China, with whom it is often engaged in sanctions clashes, but also countries like Saudi Arabia, from which ministers often try to solicit investments.
Certainly it seems important that the public should know how much of their taxes are going towards paying debts to foreign governments, and how big those debts are.
Regardless, the Cabinet Office did not respond to Breitbart London’s request for an internal review within 20 working days, as is standard, or even within 40 working days, which is allowed in exceptional circumstances.
Indeed, it did not respond at all until Breitbart’s complaint was made to the Information Commissioner, who wrote to the Cabinet Office instructing it to complete the internal review.
However, when this came it simply reiterated its earlier claim that “the Cabinet Office does not hold any information in scope of your request”.
This means that, if the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury are being truthful, the government has no idea how much money it is handing over to foreign governments on an annual basis — a glaring hole in its knowledge base when conducting foreign policy and making decisions on things like sanctions, which can have severe economic consequences.
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