Labour is being blamed for drag on growth - but the real picture is more complicated than that

Economic growth revised to zero, stubbornly high inflation, and warnings of job losses on the horizon.

- Richard Partington

After less than six months in office, a narrative is taking hold that Keir Starmer's government is fumbling his number one mission to reboot Britain's economy.

On the eve of the prime minister's first Christmas in Downing Street, the early indicators aren't looking good. After growth was revised down from 0.1% to zero in the third quarter, and with the Bank of England forecasting more of the same in the fourth quarter, at best the UK economy has gone sideways since Labour came to power in July.

The Tory argument is that Rachel Reeves has "killed, plucked and cooked the UK economic goose" just in time for Christmas, having crushed consumer and business confidence through a combination of dour rhetoric and large tax rises.

Certainly the chancellor's downbeat messaging - deployed to hammer the Conservatives into electoral oblivion and emphasise the need for change - has had an impact. Surveys of consumer confidence fell sharply in late summer as Reeves rolled the pitch for the biggest tax-raising budget in decades, in a period when Labour expended much of its early political capital by cutting winter fuel payments and sticking to the two-child limit on benefits.