Britain is on the brink of a recession after official figures were revised to show zero growth in the third quarter of the year and living standards fell, with Rachel Reeves’s horror Budget blamed. The Telegraph has more.
Growth from July to September was revised down from 0.1% to zero, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. Living standards also fell.
The U.K. and Italy were the only G7 countries to register no growth during that time, performing worse than rivals such as Germany, France and the U.S.
With the economy at risk of contracting in the final three months of 2024, it means Britain is close to experiencing the first of two consecutive quarters of negative growth that define a technical recession.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, said in response to the bleak figures that they were only “fuelling our fire to deliver”.
She said: “The challenge we face to fix our economy and properly fund our public finances after 15 years of neglect is huge.”
She added: “But this is only fuelling our fire to deliver for working people. The Budget and our Plan for Change will deliver sustainable long-term growth, putting more money in people’s pockets through increased investment and relentless reform.”
The disappointing revision comes after the U.K. economy contracted in October, suggesting it remains smaller than before Labour took power.
Ms. Reeves has been accused of crushing confidence after she repeatedly warned of the challenges faced by the country and imposed a record £40 billion tax raid in her first Budget.
Top recruiters including ManpowerGroup and Adecco have warned that Britain is in a “hiring recession”, while a survey by the Confederation of British Industry found that businesses expect to cut down on hiring, reduce output and deal with higher prices in the first three months of 2025.
Andrew Griffith MP, Shadow Business Secretary, said: “Labour have really killed, plucked and cooked the U.K. economic goose. A summer of trash talking the economy, an autumn tax-hiking budget and now a winter of discontent with a recession a distinct possibility. The Chancellor must urgently change course.” …
The figures also imply that living standards worsened in the year to July to September, with GDP per head falling by 0.2% rather than remaining flat as initially believed.
The numbers suggest that the economy is failing to keep pace with population growth. Net migration has soared to new records in recent years and has only just started to decline.
The fall in living standards may well be revised lower still, as the ONS will update its population estimates in January.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The petition calling for another General Election “because the current Labour Government has gone back on the promises it laid out in the lead up to the last election” has now passed three million signatures. Parliament will debate the petition on January 6th, though despite the auspicious timing I doubt we can expect any kind of epiphany from Two Tier Keir about why it’s all going so very badly for him.
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And all the net zero policies and laws still to kick in!
Last person out of Britain, no need to switch off the lights, they’ll be off already
Following the Southport riots, I think there is a solution: 3 years’ mandatory prison sentence for anybody who spreads bad news about the UK economy.
Things simply cannot be bad with our superbly competent Labour government in charge!
Good job they are not clever enough to discern sarcasm.
Lefties never are but then being a leftie you would hardly be very bright would you?
It’s economic growth Jim, just not as we know it.
“fuelling our fire to deliver”.
Fuelling the fire that was our economy.
We are told it takes time to turn around the super tanker of the economy. I should remind everyone that it takes time to sink a super tanker too.
But it doesn’t take long to run into serious trouble, like the old Torrey Canyon that ran aground in 1967 (to continue with the oil analogy).
I struggle with that given we were the fastest growing G7 economy before the students took over. It makes Sushi’s dumb decision to hold a July election all the more headscratching.
Maybe we need a new crime for CV Fraud.
Rachel Thieves is less-likeable Elizabeth Holmes.
On a par with Rose West probably.
I wonder if the Captain of the Titanic thought that the ship wasn’t sinking quickly enough, so contemplated blowing a few more holes in the bow?
Because that’s what Keir-Ching! and Rachel from Complaints have done to the British economy.
Is it ironic in turning the ship to try to miss the iceberg he caused the greater damage that sank it? A head on collision and we would have been spared Kate & Leo.