Streeting was right – there is no growth strategy and things may get a whole lot worse, says HUGO DUNCAN

Delusional. That was the word used to describe Rachel Reeves as she jetted off to Davos last month to boast of her achievements as Chancellor and the ‘stability we have brought to the economy’.

With newly minted forecasts from the International Monetary Fund to hand, she hailed a third ‘upgrade’ for the UK since April last year.

Anyone who had seen the forecasts had no idea what she was talking about.

There was no upgrade for this year or next. In fact, the UK and Italy were the only nations in the G7 not to receive an upgrade.

Clarification came from the Chancellor’s minions in the Treasury. She wasn’t talking about the present or future. No. She was talking about the IMF’s forecasts for 2025.

The all-knowing IMF now judged the UK economy to have grown by – wait for it – 1.4 per cent last year rather than the 1.3 per cent previously thought.

How this delighted our ‘growth is my number one priorty’ Chancellor.

Fast forward to today, and once again Reeves’ hubris – and indeed delusion – are plain to see.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show the economy in fact grew by just 1.3 per cent last year.

Britain is now bumping along the bottom, eking out minimal growth of just 0.1 per cent in the third quarter and the same again in the final three months of the year.

While once again showing the IMF’s forecasts are not worth the paper they are written on, the grim figures highlight Labour’s gross mismanagement of the economy.

Wes Streeting was right – there is ‘no growth strategy’ – as he outlined in messages to Lord Mandelson.

What there is instead is an unprecedented assault on the private sector to pay for the expansion of the already bloated state.

Taxes on jobs, incomes, savings and property to fund pay rises for public sector workers and benefits.

Since taking office, Reeves has announced £75billion of tax hikes – more than any other Chancellor in at least six decades.

The British people – and in particular the middle classes with the temerity to work, save and dream of a better life do their families – are footing the bill.

Asda boss Allan Leighton recently pleaded with the Chancellor to stop ‘taxing everything’. And is, pretty much, everything.

Under Reeves (and the Tories were not much better) taxes have gone up on working, hiring, employing, farming, saving, investing, driving, learning, holidaying, even dying. This list goes on.

Is it any wonder the economy is in the doldrums?

Reeves clearly has no idea how to ignite the animal spirits and get the economy moving.

What is even more worrying is she may be the best Labour has got. With her days – and those of her boss Keir Starmer – looking numbered, things may be about to get a whole lot worse.

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