Rachel Reeves blew up UK economy before Iran war – it’ll rain hellfire | Personal Finance | Finance

In the last three months of last year, the economy grew by only 0.1%. It was the same story in the previous quarter. In January of this year, things got even worse. Growth came to a complete halt. A little fat zero. Rachel Reeves will be looking for excuses anyway. Make many attempts to enlighten us about global uncertainty, difficult circumstances and forces beyond its control. Don’t believe a word of it. The terrifying figure this morning belongs to him.

And here’s the really worrying part. January’s data predates the war in Iran. This conflict is now threatening to rain down hellfire on the global economy, and the UK is among the hardest hit. Reeves will no doubt be hiding behind this for months to come. However, today’s figures show the truth. The damage had already been done. He is a human missile aimed at the heart of the British economy.

Perhaps drone is a better word, given that he keeps repeating the same robotic phrase about “fixing the basics.” He actually ripped them to pieces.

Last year’s budget frightened the country. Business has put on the brakes as we wait to see which sector the Chancellor will target next. Investment stopped. Recruitment collapsed. Unemployment skyrocketed. Consumers declined. Everything froze.

The budget was like a drone circling the economy, everyone was watching and waiting to see where it would go.

This result was worse than expected. Economists had predicted growth would be 0.2 percent in January. Not much, but at least something. Instead we received nothing. What concerns me most is how normal this is starting to seem.

Voters are so used to stagnation that they barely react. A flattening economy is now considered the new normal. Labor appears to have given up on the idea of ​​growth altogether.

The way out of this mess is a U-turn on Labour’s taxes to restore confidence, put money in people’s pockets and encourage businesses to invest and rehire. That won’t happen under Reeves. It has sucked lives out of the economy and funneled revenues into welfare and our inefficient public sector.

Now the Iran war is coming to make a bad situation dramatically worse. We won’t see the impact until the March numbers are published in May. They can be brutal and will only get worse.

Reeves did not start this conflict and it is clear that Sir Keir Starmer is desperate to keep Britain out of it. However, if the war drags on and oil prices rise, inflation will follow and the cost of living crisis will return with a vengeance. Capital Economics has warned that the UK could grow by just 0.1% in the whole of 2026. Recession is a very real risk.

But the saddest part is that the British economy collapsed before this crisis even started. This morning Reeves insisted: “Our economic plan is correct.” Another of his many, many bums. If his plan was right, the economy would be growing. Not. Now the situation will get worse. This is not about the Iran war. This is down to the human missile tearing the British economy apart.