A crippling benefits bill is the only growth Reeves delivered

Buried in the OBR’s assessment of the Budget is this: the official analysis concludes that none of the 88 measures announced are likely to have a “material effect” on boosting economic growth.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

This, from a chancellor who used to say repeatedly that she was going “further and faster” to kickstart the economy, which she said was the government’s “number one mission”. Indeed, that is what Rachel Reeves and her colleagues were elected upon, the promise that they would galvanise business, that they would fire the UK engine. That they knew how. Trust them.

Reeves has not uttered her mantra for a while. She daren’t, because even her tin ear must tell her she would be laughed out of court if she did.

Perhaps, though, she and her boss, Keir Starmer, were engaged in a grand act of deception all along. Perhaps they led the electorate to believe they would do one thing while they were intent on pursuing another. That is certainly how it feels after they pushed taxes to an all-time high and, as the Budget watchdog states, did nothing to fulfil their avowed mission.

There is one bit of the UK economy that is growing and that is welfare spending. The bill currently stands at £314bn and is due to increase to £406bn over the next five years. That must be what Reeves meant as she sought our approval, our money to drive her much-touted agenda. We’ve been taken for a grotesque ride.