The UK was dragged into a recession at the end of last year, causing yet another headache for the Conservative government which is already set to suffer a complete thrashing at the next election.
The news is particularly damning in that it shows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak failed to carry out one of his “five key priorities,” to grow the economy.
Hardly a day goes by without the press highlighting fresh evidence of the government’s inability to handle illegal migration, another of Sunak’s five pledges. But new figures, revealing that the UK went through two consecutive quarters of contracting GDP—commonly defined as a “technical recession”—at the end of 2023, suggest that the list of Conservative Party failures is much longer than this.
Labour was quick to latch on to the news, with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves claiming that Sunak’s mission to grow the economy was “in tatters.” The opposition was clearly delighted that the figures briefly drew attention away from its own failure to root out the antisemitism in its ranks.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who was made aware of the recession on Wednesday evening, is now scaling back plans for tax cuts, according to The Daily Telegraph. Lacking self-awareness, a Treasury insider told the paper that plans must be altered because “the world has changed.”
Financial Times reporters added that Hunt is also considering “slashing billions of pounds from public spending plans.” One official described this as a “tough call,” but stressed that the situation is so bad, “it isn’t clear whether there will be easier alternatives.”
Hunt is already expected to cut funding for a scheme designed to help Britain’s poorest pupils catch up after losing out significantly on education during government-imposed lockdowns, to the frustration of child advocacy campaigners.
