The Liberal Democrat leader has written an article for the Independent calling on Theresa May to act on the level of personal debt in Britain.

He writes:

Weak growth and falling real wages mean living standards are only being maintained through personal borrowing, growing by 10 per cent a year. 

Recent Bank of England figures show unsecured debt (credit card spending and personal loans) growing at four times the rate of mortgage debt, while the household savings rate is at a historic low. 

Hence the recent news that total unsecured debt has surpassed £200bn, the amount it climbed to just before the financial crisis a decade ago. 

High levels of personal debt increase the vulnerability of financial institutions to economic shocks, as the Governor of the Bank of England has warned, and when interest rates rise again, many individuals will struggle to cope.