Things are already getting better. The news is in, but Starmer is pretending otherwise. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to justify the smash and grab that chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to inflict on taxpayers in her autumn Budget.
Starmer prefers to gripe about the £22billion black hole he claims to have found in the public finances, which is all the fault of those rotten Tories, of course.
Obviously, every new government blames the old one for all that’s got wrong. And that’s fair enough.
But Starmer’s not in opposition now. He’s supposed to lead, not whinge.
And there are a surprisingly high number of reasons to be cheerful right now, says Phil Jenkins, chief executive of international finance firm Centrus.
He’s come up with a list of eight things that are going right with the UK economy. Labour needs to build on them, not hide them.
1. The UK is racing ahead. Our economy is growing at the fastest rate of any country in the G7, including the US. I know that ruins the Labour narrative that the Tories left a national calamity in their wake, but it’s true.
2. Interest rates are falling. And there’s more to come. As Jenkins points out, markets are forecasting rates will fall from today’s 5% to 4.5% by the end of this year. They’ll fall further in 2024, easing the pressure on mortgage borrowers, reviving the housing market, boosting our spending power and driving business profits.
3. Inflation has fallen. Consumer prices rose just 2.2% in the year to July, well below the peak of 11.1% in October 2022. This is lower than both the eurozone and the US, Jenkins says.
4. Unemployment is down. Incredibly, the UK’s unemployment rate is lower than in 44 of the last 50 years.
I’d add here that wages are rising faster than inflation, too. Even if it doesn’t square with Starmer’s assertion that things are getting worse.
5. Sterling is soaring. The pound is at an eight-year high as currency markets recognise that the UK is in on the up. That should cut the cost of imports, further reducing inflation, and make our holidays cheaper, too.
6. Business confidence is improving. More great news. Although confidence may be a little shaken as businesses wait to see how much new red tape Labour is about to impose on them.
7. The UK stock market is climbing. The FTSE 100 is up more than 12% over the last year, boosting our pensions and stocks and shares Isas. Plus a growing number of new companies are choosing to float on the London market.
8. We’ve bagged a new trade deal. The UK will join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in December. This is a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
It will boost the UK by opening new markets to our products, and vice versa. And without having to give up a shred sovereignty.
We’re only a few weeks into the Labour government, even if it seems longer. All these positives are therefore down to the Tories.
The big danger is that the PM will sabotage them.
We still have a host of problems that need fixing, but the UK isn’t the basket case Starmer makes out.
As Jenkins says: “More upbeat messaging from the Government as well as some pro-growth and business friendly policies might put us on a better economic path.”
Instead, Starmer prefers to terrify us into accepting his tax hikes. We shouldn’t let him gaslight us.
