Rishi Sunak staggers on – but for how long?
small rise in GDP that the government is championing, working people are still “worse off than they were 14 years ago”, and the country “just can’t carry on with that”.
She told viewers of Sky News:
I think the government seems to think we should be grateful for the fact that we are no longer in recession and have low growth instead.
I think this still reflects the fact that working people are still worse off than they were 14 years ago, that people are still paying more on their mortgages, prices are still much higher.
And actually people are feeling really squeezed.
So the idea really of the Conservatives trying to do a victory lap on all of this and expecting everybody to think it’s all wonderful and we’ve never had it so good I think just shows how out of touch they are.
We need a proper plan to properly boost growth right across the country and that’s what Labour is setting out.
I just think we have had 14 years of low growth, of chaos, and of working people losing out most, and we just can’t carry on with that.
Office for National Statistics said the period from January to the end of March marked a return to growth after a mild recession in the second half of 2023. It was the strongest rate of quarterly growth since the end of 2021, and a better performance than expected by economists, who forecast growth of 0.4% in the first quarter.
The downturn came to an end after an increase in activity across the services sector, which has flourished since the turn of the year as wages have outstripped inflation, easing the pressure on consumers.
However, forecasters expect the UK to grow slowly this year as high interest rates and last year’s inflation surge continue to take their toll on disposable incomes.
Read more here: UK has moved out of recession, official figures show
Starmer to rip up Rwanda scheme and fund new anti-smuggling unit
Keir Starmer is due to make a speech about immigration in Dover.
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The Lords is sitting, but there isn’t much in the way of any scheduled business today. Rod Ismay is up at the Post Office inquiry, and I will keep an ear on that. He has previously given evidence that his 2010 report was a missed opportunity to discover “a decade earlier than we did” the flaws in the Horizon IT system.
It is Martin Belam with you again today. You can email me at [email protected]. I appreciate it especially if you have spotted typos/errors/omissions.
Source: theguardian.com
