Liz Truss continues to do a lot of heavy lifting for the Labour party. The former prime minister’s mini-Budget featured more in the election – as a Labour talking point – than any piece of policy implemented by Rishi Sunak. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is determined to present the next round of spending cuts and tax hikes as an extension of Tory policy, rather than the start of Labour policy. The narrative that, under Truss, the Tories ‘crashed the economy’ is part of what’s being used to justify all the ‘tough decisions’ Labour has coming up in its first Budget at the end of October. The perceived wisdom of what the mini-Budget did to the economy is crucial for pointing the blame.
This morning’s update from the Office for National Statistics tells a different story. The revised growth figures for 2022 show a better year than previously estimated: a 0.5 percentage point increase, from 4.3
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