In politics as in everyday life it is possible to be right at the same time as being terribly, terribly wrong. Look no further than Liz Truss instructing her lawyers to send a ‘cease and desist letter’ to Keir Starmer demanding that he stops accusing her of “crashing the economy”. The claim, she alleges, is not only false but contributed to her losing her South West Norfolk seat in last year’s general election.
Truss is right, as it happens – the mini budget delivered by her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng during her micro-premiership may have precipitated a run on bond markets, but it had little effect on the economy, and Britain did not suffer an immediate recession. The quarterly GDP growth figures for 2022 and 2023 were:
Q1 2022: +0.7 per cent
Q2 2022: +0.3 per cent
Q3 2022: +0.1 per cent
Then, following the mini budget:
Q4 2022: +0.3 per cent
Q1 2023: +0.1 per cent
Q2 2023: +0 per cent
Q3 2023: -0.1
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