Keir Starmer should be thankful for Lord Mandelson. Were it not for scandal over the Mandelson’s connections with Jeffrey Epstein, more people might have noticed an even greater disgrace this morning. The Prime Minister’s promise of ‘growth, growth, growth’ has ploughed spectacularly into the ground. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports today that there was zero growth in the economy in July, and just 0.2 per cent of growth in the three months to July. Besides being lousy news in itself, it is likely to lead to a further downgrading of future growth forecasts, resulting in the Chancellor having an even bigger black hole in her Budget, necessitating even more growth-destroying tax rises. And on goes the vicious cycle.

However, the news on growth is even worse than it first appea

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