"Next year the UK is set for the slowest growth and the highest inflation in the G7, why is he failing to manage the economy?"
It was a fair question for Boris Johnson from Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday. The Labour leader, who has aimed powerfully at his opposite number on the swirling party-gate scandals in recent weeks, chose to take a different approach and one that will have hit the Prime Minister and his Tory MPs hard.
They are after all, the party of fiscal responsibility, right? The party that is strong on the economy, right? Well maybe not. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UK's economy is expected to grow by just 1.2 per cent in 2023, compared with 2.5 per cent for the European Union and slightly less for the United States.
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Granted, the war in Ukraine has had a severe impact on the global economy, but it is the UK - and its people - that is suffering the most. The inflation that we are seeing now is forecast to last longer in the UK than other similar economies. World beating once again.
The result is more suffering for those on low incomes, more hardship for the vulnerable and more people being pushed into poverty. In response, the Prime Minister and this government appear to be desperately bereft of any meaningful solutions.
It is reported that only now, three weeks after hard-hit families were struck with higher energy bills and increased National Insurance and Council Tax costs, the Prime Minister has asked his cabinet to have a think about what could be done to help ease the crisis. The catch? He wants them to do this without spending much money or as a spokesperson put it ''without solely relying on new government spend.'
So what could these magical, cost-free policies to tackle a generational living cost crisis be? What are the brightest minds in the cabinet coming up with to help families get through these most difficult of times?
So far it has amounted to a plan to move vehicle MOTs from yearly to every two years and to cut the adult to child ratios at childcare providers. Both half-baked plans have been immediately rubbished by industry experts.
On MOTs, the AA said: "It could make costs worse for drivers with higher repair bills, make our roads more dangerous and would put jobs in the garage industry at risk." On the child-care plan, the National Day Nurseries Association said: "We risk putting additional pressure on an overworked workforce while undermining efforts to give children the best start in life."
Back to the drawing board then Prime Minister. Not only are these ideas badly thought through and likely to cause further problems, they are coming far too late for many families who are struggling right now. The cost of living crisis has been on the cards since way before the Russian invasion and the government has barely moved a muscle.
When Liverpool MP Ian Byrne asked about the activities of an inter-ministerial group dedicated to looking at the cost of living crisis, he was informed that the group had not actually met since November 9 last year. Quite incredible.
As for the Chancellor, well he remains conspicuous by his absence. Ever since his widely ridiculed Spring Statement, which offered absolutely nothing to help those on the breadline, we have barely seen Rishi Sunak. In fact one of the only times we have heard from him was to acknowledge he had paid his £50 party-gate fine.
The truth of the matter is that not only is this a Prime Minister and a government mired in scandal, subject of an unprecedented number of investigations, but it is a Prime Minister and a government bereft of ideas, without any sort of plan, vision or perhaps will to help the country out of the crisis it finds itself in.
