“The United Kingdom currently has higher government borrowing costs than any other advanced economy.” — Kemi Badenoch. Our verdict: Unverified.

What we found

The evidence

• Background

  A report on Badenoch's comments says she stated that the UK is paying more to borrow than any other advanced economy. [1]

• Background

  A second news report confirms that the claim was attributed to Kemi Badenoch. [2]

• Supports the claim

  A market analysis published on 1 October 2026 found the UK had the highest 30-year government bond yield, at 6.04%, among the advanced economies it listed: the United States, the eurozone, Canada, Japan, China and Switzerland. [3]

• Background

  A BBC programme page describes a Badenoch speech on spending and debt, but does not report the specific claim about borrowing costs. [4]

• Supports the claim

  A market commentary published on 8 October 2026 said the UK had a higher starting yield on government bonds than other major economies, though the United States and France had seen sharper recent rises. [5]

• Background

  Ireland's 10-year government bond yield was 3.55% on 20 October 2026, the date of the claim. [6]

What we could not confirm

• Whether the UK's borrowing costs were higher than every other advanced economy on 20 October 2026, because no source provides a complete ranking of all advanced economies on that date.
• Borrowing cost figures for many advanced economies, including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and Israel, which were not covered by the sources we found.
• Whether the figures from early October 2026 still applied on 20 October 2026, the date the claim was made.

How we checked

We looked at news reports of Kemi Badenoch's comments, market analyses of government bond yields in October 2026, and a country-level bond yield figure for the date of the claim. We compared these with the claim to see whether a full ranking of advanced economies was available. We reviewed 6 relevant sources.