S&P affirms Britain's triple-A rating but strips EU In our view, EU budgetary negotiations have become more contentious, signaling what we consider to be rising risks to the support of the EU from some member states. Rival ratings agencies Moody's and Fitch both downgraded Britain from AAA earlier this year. The downgrades were a significant setback for George Osborne, who at the time faced criticism that his austerity strategy for dealing with UK's huge debt burden was failing to deliver. S&P suggested that the Chancellor's refusal to relax his austerity drive had been vindicated by the current recovery. UK GDP growth accelerated to 0.8pc between July and September, marking the third straight quarter of expansion and the country is now has one of the fastest-growing economies among the world's rich countries with an annualised growth rate of over 3pc. Earlier this month, Fitch's new chief sovereign analyst said the despite the strong strong it would take time for Britain to win back its AAA rating. James McCormack stressed it would take more than just a couple of good quarters of growth to prove the country's recovery was sustainable. S&P also maintained Ireland's long-term sovereign rating at BBB+/A-2 and the outlook at positive. It expects the government to reduce its debt burden through budgetary consolidation and asset sales as the domestic economy improves, following its exit from an EU/IMF bailout this month.