“Debt servicing costs for the poorest Commonwealth countries are at their highest in over 25 years, and more than 40% of these countries spend more on interest repayments than on health.” — Andy Burnham. Our verdict: Unverified.
Andy Burnham made the claim in comments reported by The Guardian on 30 October 2026, in a story about calls for a formal apology for Britain's role in the slave trade.
Our verdict
Unverified
We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute Andy Burnham's claim that debt servicing costs for the poorest Commonwealth countries are at their highest in over 25 years, and that more than 40% of them spend more on interest than on health. The only source we found that addresses the claim simply reports what he said, without providing the underlying figures.
Know something that settles it? Send us evidenceWhat we found
The claim was made by Andy Burnham and reported by The Guardian on 30 October 2026. That report tells us what he said, but it does not give the figures behind the claim, and we could not find any official dataset or independent report that does. We looked for numbers from the usual sources — the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat — covering debt servicing costs for the poorest Commonwealth countries over the past 25 years, and for figures comparing interest repayments with health spending across those countries. We found nothing that either backs up or contradicts the claim. Because the claim cannot be checked against public evidence, our verdict is unverifiable. If you have data or documents that speak to this, please send them to us.
The evidence
- Background
The Guardian report attributes the claim to Andy Burnham, saying he stated that current debt servicing costs for the poorest Commonwealth countries are the highest in over 25 years and that over 40% of them spend more on interest than on health. This tells us what was said, but it does not provide the figures behind it. [1]
What we could not confirm
- Whether debt servicing costs for the poorest Commonwealth countries are at their highest in over 25 years.
- Whether more than 40% of these countries spend more on interest repayments than on health.
- The underlying data and methodology behind both parts of the claim.
How we checked
We searched for official data and independent reporting from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat on debt servicing costs for the poorest Commonwealth countries over the past 25 years, and on how their interest repayments compare with health spending. The only source we found that addressed the claim was the Guardian report of what Andy Burnham said. We reviewed 1 relevant source.
Sources
- [1]www.theguardian.com · Andy Burnham open to calls for formal apology for Britain’s role in slave trade · October 30, 2026
- [2]Photo: Department of Health / Wikimedia Commons, OGL v1.0
Help us check this claim
We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. If you know of an official record, dataset, transcript or report that settles it, send us the link. We review every submission and update this fact check when the evidence changes the picture.
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