Blow for Rishi Sunak as revised GDP figures show economy in reverse

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox

Get our free View from Westminster email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Rishi Sunak suffered a blow as revised figures showed the UK economy shrinking between July and September.

The prime minister made growing the economy one of his five key pledges to voters at the start of the year.

And in a fresh setback to the target, the official statistics watchdog downgraded its estimates of Britain’s economic performance this year.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1 per cent from July to September, down from an earlier estimate that it had flatlined. And it said from April to June Britain experienced no growth, compared with an earlier estimate of a 0.2 per cent rise in GDP.

Labour lashed out at Mr Sunak’s “legacy of failure” and promised Sir Keir Starmer would revive Britain’s fortunes.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Rishi Sunak failed to beat Liz Truss, he failed to cut waiting lists, he failed to stop the boats and now he has failed to grow the economy.

“Thirteen years of economic failure under the Conservatives have left working people worse off, with higher bills, higher mortgages and higher prices in the shops.”

But Jeremy Hunt said the outlook for Britain’s economy “is far more optimistic than these numbers suggest”.

The chancellor pointed to a further fall in inflation this week and said tax cuts announced in his autumn statement would boost economic growth.

The latest fall in GDP was driven by a drop-off in the services sector, the ONS said, which includes things like retail and hospitality.

The latest figures mean that, aside from overseeing a halving in the rate of inflation, the PM ends the year having failed on all of his other pledges; stopping small boat channel crossings, reducing national debt, cutting NHS waiting lists and growing the economy.

At the time he set out the promises in January, Mr Sunak said: “I will only promise what I can deliver. And I will deliver what I promise.

“I ask you to judge us on the effort we put in and the results we achieve.”

Mr Sunak this week tried to row back on his pledge to “stop the boats”, insisting there is no “firm date” on the promise.

Grilled by parliament’s powerful liaison committee, Mr Sunak said he does not have “a precise date” for when the crossings will stop. “We will keep going until we do [stop the boats],” he insisted.