𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Today’s dire economic forecasts will undoubtedly be seen as a headache for the Treasury, but make no mistake – Rachel Reeves will also use them as an excuse for the underlying woes that businesses are facing. We’ve been warned today that inflation will rise and the economy will stop growing, with experts laying the blame partially at the feet of the mullahs in Iran and their efforts to strangulate the flow of vital goods through the Straits of Hormuz.

This is the conclusion of a report by the prestigious Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). But as the Express has repatedly warned, problems have been baked in to the UK economy for much longer than this war has been raging. Some 33,000 businesses in the hospitality sector have closed their doors since the first Budget delivered by this uninspiring Labour government and its Chancellor sent taxes skyrocketing.

That disastrous budget was followed soon after by an equally as ruinous ‘Benefits Street Budget’, which only magnified the woes aspirational Britons faced. Business is, quite clearly, the engine that keeps a country moving forward – something which is obvious to any sensible observer but not, it seems, to our Chancellor.

With hikes to business rates, increases to National Insurance and a rising minimum wage sending the base costs for many already-struggling firms rising, it’s no surprise that we are feeling the pinch now.

And more misery is on the horizon. Recent bailouts for those on benefits, who have been hit by rising energy costs, will surely only be to the detriment of taxpayers.

Despite the spin of this ruinously expensive socialist government, it is not just on the shoulders of the disadvantaged that heightened costs of heating fall.

Those who wake up each morning, go to work and graft, will also feel the pinch.

As do those who now rightly enjoy a well-earned retirement, having fuelled our economy and laid the groundwork for the nation’s wealth that Whitehall now seeks to plunder.

7.1% of Britons find gainful employment in the hospitality industry. Working in bars, kitchens, hotels and more is not easy, and for many it is both a career and a passion. For the young it is often their first experience of enjoying a well-earned income.

Slamming this sector with more and more taxes, and even plotting – as we know Labour is doing – to unwind hard-won Brexit freedoms and subserviate this country to 76 Brussels diktats, will only hasten this country’s decline.

The solution to a spending spree which has seen the chancellor funnel cash to those on benefits whilst throttling private enterprise, is to take an axe to the red tape, a chainsaw to the glut of the state and unshackle the wealth creators who keep this country moving.

Today’s OECD forecast is not proof that the nation’s woes may be laid at Tehran’s feet.

They are proof that the long hangover inflicted by a boozing on benefits spending is finally here, and once again it will be the aspirational and already suffocated taxpayer who is left to feel the pain.