Reeves wants to be the Iron Chancellor but hot air is her most prominent substance'

IF the Chancellor had not mismanaged the economy so badly, then yesterday's spring statement would not have been so significant.

- Leo McKinstry Daily Express columnist

When she entered the Treasury last year, Rachel Reeves envisaged the event as little more than a financial progress report to the Commons.

But that was before she delivered her disastrous Budget last October.

As the tax burden rocketed by £40billion a year, job creation stalled, investment fell, confidence declined and Government debt worsened, making a mockery of her pledge that she would lead “the most pro-growth, pro-business Treasury that this country has ever seen”.

The full extent of her folly was laid bare yesterday when she set out the latest verdict of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) into the Labour Government's handling of the economy.

In a damning judgement, the OBR slashed its forecast for growth this year from 2% to just 1%. Nor was the OBR impressed by the Government's programme of welfare reform, which was meant to show that ministers are serious about balancing the books.

What Labour's feeble approach actually revealed is the party's cowardice and lack of ambition.

Indeed, the OBR said that the savings from the changes to the benefits system would amount to just £3.4billion annually, far less than the £5billion ministers had trumpeted.