Such a collapse in GDP per capita growth shows just how poorly the UK economy has performed under the Tories.

The Tories have always prided themselves as being the party of ‘sound finances’, as the party that the voters could trust on the economy.

Yet their record in office shows the total opposite, with 14 years of office defined by low growth, poor productivity, stagnation and rising levels of inequality and poverty.

Now a new damning stat from the Resolution Foundation reveals just how awful the Tory record on the economy has been, with Britain continuing to fall behind comparable countries.

Although figures published by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that the UK economy is officially out of recession after it grew by 0.6 per cent in the first three months of the year, there is still much work to do.

The Resolution Foundation warns not to place too much emphasis on one quarter of growth, with a blog from the think-tank’s Chief Executive Torsten Bell adding: “The big picture is what matters – it’s good that GDP per capita grew for the first time in two years in Q1 2024, but it’s still lower now than it was two years back.

“Our Research Director James Smith has a terrifying stat to put our stagnation into context: GDP per capita has grown by just 4.3 per cent over the past 16 years – down from 46 per cent during the preceding 16 years running up to the 2008 financial crisis.”

Such a collapse in GDP per capita growth shows just how poorly the UK economy has performed under the Tories.

Despite claims of ‘Tory levelling up’ and promises that the country is turning a corner, the UK is facing the largest reduction in real living standards since ONS records began.

The OBR says that living standards “are forecast to be 3½ per cent lower in 2024-25 than their pre-pandemic level … this … represents the largest reduction in real living standards since ONS [Office for National Statistics] records began in the 1950s”.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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