Inflation is down to 2.2 per cent, Nationwide has just introduced its first sub 4 per cent mortgage deal in months, unemployment is at its lowest level since 1974 and Britain remains the fastest growing economy in the G7.
After years of household budgets being squeezed – first by Covid and then the cost of living crisis – things are finally starting to look up.
The public should be feeling positive about Britain’s future, but the latest figures show consumer confidence in the UK is actually falling.
GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index tumbled seven points this month to minus 20. This confidence matters because it underpins economic growth as a significant driver of the public’s willingness to part with their cash.
Expectations for the general economy over the next 12 months fell by 12 points to minus 27, while the forecast for personal finances is down nine points to minus three.
The figures, for once, cannot be blamed on “14 years of Tory failure” since they show the downturn occurred after the general election. Instead, they reflect just how badly Labour has managed its first 11 weeks in office.
We knew the headlines were bad – but this data reveals the true cost of self-defeating statements like “things can only get worse” and wrong headed policies like robbing pensioners to pay public sector workers.
Doom-mongering Sir Keir Starmer, along with his equally Cassandra-like Chancellor Rachel Reeves have basically trampled over the green shoots of our economic recovery by actively scaring people off spending.
As Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK, confirmed: “Following the withdrawal of the winter fuel payments, and clear warnings of further difficult decisions to come on tax, spending and welfare, consumers are nervously awaiting the Budget decisions on October 30.”
Justin King, who as former CEO of Sainsbury’s certainly knows his onions, agreed the upcoming Budget was to blame for the slump, saying: “The reality for most people has been positive for a while. Generally speaking, wage settlements have been ahead of inflation, household budgets have absorbed the shock of the cost of living crisis over the last couple of years, so it felt like things were getting a little better … but obviously we’ve had this backdrop of bad news starting with government”.
Economic illiteracy is squared when you consider that Labour has gambled everything on “growth” – while refusing to spell out how that will be achieved beyond Milibandesque blather about conjuring up 650,000 green jobs from thin air.
But this public crisis of confidence surely extends further than mere fears about the Budget, which Reeves has reportedly been stupid enough to have described as “the biggest opportunity since Black Wednesday to bury the Tories as they deserve”.
Reeves’ economic incompetence is compounded by her ideological zeal. That would perhaps explain why she is yet to react to the news that the Treasury has been handed an extra £10 bn fiscal headroom – despite her repeated insistence that everything she accounts for has been “fully costed”.
Baroness Altmann, the former pensions minister, has rightly asked whether she’ll give the winter fuel allowance back to the 10 million pensioners about to be stripped of the £300 allowance. So far, no comment.
Perhaps she’s too preoccupied supporting the sisterhood stripping No. 11 of its male-dominated art collection and replacing it with works exclusively by or depicting women, which I am sure will bring much comfort to all those little old ladies choosing between heating and eating this winter.
Because Reeves once worked at the Bank of England, she insists she knows how to “run a successful economy” (if not a successful art collection).
Notwithstanding the arrogance of that statement, it is perhaps worth noting that she joined Threadneedle Street straight from the London School of Economics, natch, and only ever worked in a fairly junior position.
Sadly, she isn’t the only amateur in government masquerading as an expert. Recent events suggest that there is a shocking disconnect between the inflated egos of most those in cabinet and their real abilities.
This week also witnessed Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, insisting he knows better than one of the most successful businesses in the world on the subject of flexible working. Criticising Amazon’s decision to order staff back into the office five days per week, Mr Reynolds, who has barely had a job outside of politics, suggested the $2 trillion online retail giant was getting it wrong.
Labour is preparing to introduce an Employment Rights Bill next month which will make flexible working a default right for staff from day one, with employers only able to refuse if working from home is not “practical”.
If they switched practical for productive, even the most ardent critic would be compelled to admit they were onto something. But deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, the party’s resident Citizen Smith, will be having none of that employer rights nonsense. Up with the unions and all that.
Meanwhile, we’ve got Foreign Secretary David Lammy sparking diplomatic incidents wherever in the world he walks in his scruffy trainers. First he angered Israel and the US by suspending around 30 arms export licences to Tel Aviv, and now he’s been branded “highly improper” and “callous” after writing that Azerbaijan had been able to “liberate” territory governed by ethnic Armenians in an act of forced population transferrence.
And where do we even begin with the complete lack of political nous displayed by Starmer and his chief of staff Sue Gray over Donorgate?
Greedy Starmer’s £107,000 worth of freebies aside – why have we still not got clarification of who allowed Lord Alli to have a temporary pass to No 10 after performing his Trinny and Susannah act on the Starmers’ wardrobe?
The Labour peer was granted access after donating £10,000 to the election campaign of Liam Conlon, the son of Partygate inquisitor turned Downing Street gatekeeper Ms Gray, who was elected as the new Labour MP for Beckenham and Penge on July 4. It looks decidedly murky – and yet Mr Integrity himself insists there is nothing to see here. Having spent £2,485 of Lord Alli’s money on spectacles, he might want to consider having his eyes retested.
The public seem to be viewing things with great clarity. Almost three months into this Labour government, they can see an administration full of political amateurs, led by a hypocrite full of sound bites but completely lacking in substance. They see a Prime Minister with no real plan, no new ideas and no substantive policies to take this country forward.
Far from inspiring confidence, Labour’s 174 seat “loveless” landslide is fast resembling a confidence trick.