John Healey just tried to channel New Labour's Gordon Brown... but here's the damning truth

"I tell you these levels of debt are an assault on our common sense," John Healey told Labour delegates in his first conference speech as Chancellor.

The UK's national debt is just below £3 trillion, or 93.8 per cent of GDP, a level not seen since the early 1960s.

It used to be the preserve of those who remember the 1970s to issue dire warnings about Labour's handling of the economy.

An IMF bailout in 1976, inflation soaring to almost 27 per cent and the Winter of Discontent became shorthand for a Labour Party that could not be trusted with the nation's finances.

The 2008 financial crash and Jeremy Corbyn's tax-hiking, state-fattening agenda only consolidated that for another generation.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the tables had turned in Labour's favour. A calamitous Conservative Government had left the nation's economy in dire straits.

A gilt-soaring mini-Budget and the highest tax burden since 1948 were an easy open goal for Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer.

"She brought to this country financial discipline," Mr Healey said of his predecessor today.

But the niceties soon ended as the new Chancellor delivered a blunter message to the Labour faithful.

"The money New Labour had in the nineties is simply not there now," Mr Healey said.

The 66-year-old softened the blow with a dose of nostalgia first, drawing laughs by noting Andy Burnham's excitement at Oasis going back on tour and Angela Rayner's joy at Gladiators returning to TV.

He blamed 14 years of Conservative Government, pointing out that growth under his political hero Gordon Brown had been more than double that of the Tory years that followed.

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"Your reckless actions are still causing pain for people today," Mr Healey said as he turned his guns on the Tories.

"You left crumbling public services, and you left Britain spending more on debt, more on debt than the Home Office, Defence, and Justice put together."

Reform UK did not escape either, with the Chancellor accusing Nigel Farage of being "Liz Truss with a Bitcoin account".

But the Government's benchmark 10-year borrowing costs have edged up again to 5.4 per cent.

That level was last seen in 2007, before the financial crisis, when the national debt was around a sixth of what it is today.

For all of Mr Healey's talk of hope, Mr Burnham's endless giveaways, from cheaper bus fares to tax cuts for pubs, clubs and live music venues, drive a coach and horses through any idea of fiscal prudence.

Mr Healey hinted that Labour might do something Sir Keir's Government wasn't bold enough to do: bring Britain's ballooning benefits bill under control.

"It is not progressive to allow a bigger and bigger benefits bill, and a system which offers an income but doesn't offer a future," the Chancellor said.

However, any savings will be hard to find given Mr Burnham has already ruled out "crude cuts" to welfare.

That leaves the Chancellor pulled in two directions: promising to meet the fiscal rules he inherited while backing the Prime Minister's spending pledges.

In the end, something will have to give.

Pensioners will worry Mr Healey's tough decisions will mean drastic changes to the triple lock.

Energy chiefs will hope it means exploration in the North Sea.

But it may also mean tax rises for millions of hard-working Britons.

The Chancellor didn't mention his tax plans today, but he will have no choice at his first Budget later this month.

Mr Healey took to the stage wearing the red tie he once lent Gordon Brown for his 1999 conference speech.

It was a fitting nod to New Labour, but with the money gone and questions left unanswered, millions will start to fear things can only get worse.