𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Rachel Reeves has had a car crash as Chancellor. In the 20 months since she’s been in the job, the economy has flopped like a bad act on the X Factor. The statistics don’t lie. Growth has been virtually non-existent over the past two years. Inflation is higher than when Labour came to power and is forecast to get much worse.

Alarmingly, unemployment is at its highest level in more than five years. Then there were the poor decisions. Everything from snatching away winter fuel payments for pensioners to a £40 billion tax bombshell in her first Budget and hiking employer National Insurance contributions.

All this has heaped pressure on the Chancellor and prompted repeated speculation that she could be axed by Sir Keir Starmer.

Chatter will intensify after the local, Welsh and Scottish elections on May 7, with Labour facing an historic wipeout.

So the last thing Ms Reeves needed was a major war in the Middle East, the fallout of which is causing a cost of living crisis back home and threatens a global recession.

The stark reality of this nightmare scenario was borne out today, as the International Monetary Fund hit the UK with a triple-whammy of bad news.

Economic growth forecasts have been downgraded for the next two years while inflation is going to be much higher than expected and unemployment will continue to rise.

Ms Reeves – who arrives in Washington later for meetings at the IMF – will inevitably take the blame. She is in charge of the nation’s purse strings.

Now she will come under even more pressure to change her iron-clad fiscal rules, which determine how much “headroom” the government has for its tax and spending plans.

With the need to boost defence spending and help consumers with rising energy prices, Labour and the Chancellor will also face more calls to slash the welfare bill too.

But that could lead to an ideological decision that would rip the Labour party apart.