Is Britain’s economy finally moving?

In its first weeks in office the new Labour government is hammering away at one message: on prisons, the National Health Service, the armed forces and more, the Tories left behind a terrible inheritance. It is no different for the economy. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, says Labour has been handed the worst economy of any incoming government since 1945, when Britain was loaded with wartime debt and its cities pockmarked with craters.

Much of the gloom is warranted. Britain’s productivity record since the financial crisis has been feeble. Parts of the previous government’s agenda, especially around Brexit, contributed to the sense of stagnation. The public finances are stretched thin. Hence Labour’s emphasis on growth: central to its election campaign was a promise to get Britain’s economy growing faster than any other G7 country’s. Muddying the picture somewhat, however, is the fact that a version of this milestone may already have been passed—under the Tories.