Britain is facing a ‘bleak’ future under Reeves (Image: Getty)
Bleak. We all know it, we can all see it, and by goodness we can all feel it.
And yet Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has an interesting relationship with reality, carries on regardless.
But a one-word assessment delivered in the wake of her spring statement just about says it all.
This year – the third Britain has faced under this ruinous Labour regime – will be unlike any other as the full force of the Government’s economic ineptitude makes us all poorer.
Life is tough right now but things are not getting better any time soon.
In fact, they are set to get a whole lot worse, with living standards forecast to dramatically drop in the two years before the UK has its next chance of regime change in the shape of a general election.
Economists have warned the weary public that we are all heading for “far bleaker” times ahead as Ms Reeves continues to preside over a misfiring economy and desperate families face yet more cost of living misery.
The Resolution Foundation, the left-leaning think tank aligned to Labour, warned living standards will plummet further after this year.
Chief executive Ruth Curtice said: “With wage growth set to tail off the living standards picture for the rest of the Parliament is bleak.
“This should remind policy makers of the need to both navigate near-term uncertainty and support productivity-based economic growth over the medium term. That is the only way to meaningfully lift living standards throughout Britain.”
Almost 2 million people are now unemployed (Image: Getty)
Tin-eared Ms Reeves must live in a parallel universe.
At the Commons dispatch box she said stability was the “single-most important precondition for economic growth” when all she has delivered is uncertainty and market jitters.
And she even had the brass neck to say: “Inflation is down. Borrowing is down. Living standards are up and the economy is growing.”
National income has been downgraded this year and in 2025 the economy grew by a paltry 1.3%.
Yet despite all the clear and present evidence of ordinary people struggling with crippling household bills and sky-high taxes, tone deaf and complacent Ms Reeves believes – and even boasts – that what she is doing is working, stubbornly saying she will stick to her “growth plan”.
Unemployment now stands at 5.2% – the highest level in five years – with youth unemployment (16 to 24-year-olds) at 16.1%.
The lurch from one crisis to the next shows what happens when stewardship of the economy is handed to a party that history shows plays fast and loose with taxpayers’ money.
Labour’s recklessness has seen consumer confidence fall through the floor and heap misery on tens millions of hard-working families.
The only people now cheering her on are the growing number receiving taxpayer-funded handouts, a workshy army handsomely rewarded by a government that has ramped up welfare spending beyond all comprehension.
As if it really needs to be said, the warning lights for the economy are flashing ever brighter as Labour continues to maks us all poorer.