The Standard View: Recession means Rishi Sunak will have to wait longer to talk of green shoots of recovery

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made his five priorities central to his premiership (Kin Cheung/PA)
PA Wire
Evening Standard Comment15 February 2024
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

No pandemic, no lockdown, but no economic growth either. Britain has slipped into recession, official figures confirm, as GDP shrank by a worse than expected 0.3 per cent in the three months from October to December, following a 0.1 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Notwithstanding the fact that this represents one of the shallower recessions of recent times — certainly compared with the Covid contraction — it is a massive blow to Rishi Sunak, who made “grow the economy” one of his five pledges at the beginning of 2023.

Of course, a weakening economy is in a sense the medicine working. The Bank of England raised interest rates 14 successive times to 5.25 per cent in order to bring inflation back to target. Much painful progress has been made on that front, but at four per cent, inflation remains double the official target.

Clearly, even the uttering of the word “recession” is a disaster for the Government, never more so in an election year. If the Prime Minister and Chancellor were hoping to tell a story of green shoots of recovery, they will have to wait a little longer.

The oldest hatred

Anti-Jewish hatred in Britain has exploded. In its 2023 report on antisemitic incidents, the charity Community Security Trust found there were more than 4,000 instances of anti-Jewish hatred across the UK last year, vastly higher than 2022 — itself a record.

Chillingly, the largest single-day spike in anti-Jewish incidents took place in the week following the October 7 massacre, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostage. This suggests it was a celebration of a terrorist attack in Israel that unleashed the unprecedented levels of antisemitism across London and the UK.

From schools and universities to public transport and workplaces, nowhere is out of bounds for the oldest hatred. The appalling reality is that a minority — but by no means a tiny minority — are attempting to silence, intimidate or simply beat up British Jews who are just trying to live their lives. Meanwhile, the silence from those who would swiftly condemn all other forms of racism is deafening.

Back on track

Daily commuters, transport geeks and confused tourists rejoice! The London Overground is finally to be renamed and rebranded. Gone is the creeping and confusing morass of orange across the map, replaced by six separate branches, each with a unique name and colour.

With a Lioness line passing through Wembley Central and the Windrush line running through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities, the new map celebrates the past, present, culture and diversity of our great city.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT