The government borrows money on a long dated basis, by issuing financial instruments called BONDS or GILTS. These bonds cost a certain amount and give you a guaranteed interest rate over time (5,10,20 year).
The more reliable the government is at paying investors back, the lower the interest rate can be, think of it like a credit score.
The issue is, the financial investors globally don't trust that they will receive their money back as readily as before, and such the interest rates that they the government can borrow from the global market at have risen, also leading to investors changing their pounds into other currencies (leading to a sell off in the pound).
The issue with bonds is, the cost of borrowing goes up and down based on the price of bonds, things like pensions, mortgages, credit cards and such. When bond prices go down and the yield goes up, pension funds (large investors) need more of these bonds to make up their payments for people's pensions when they retire. But as the prices keep falling, they're losing money and pensions are at risk.
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