5 ways Labour might respond to the return of growth

So today brings us news that – to be honest – we were all expecting. Growth has returned to the UK economy. And a good level of growth too. 0.8% in a single quarter is not to be sniffed at – and will certainly leave George Osborne with a spring in his step over the coming days. As I wrote last time GDP figures came out – Labour can’t afford to look unhappy with growth. But they still need to respond today.

Here are five ways they might try:

Well done George – the Labour Party could just accept that the government own today’s headlines, congratulate them on the return to growth and use it as an opportunity to build the case for why Labour would grow the economy better.

What took you so long? – George Osborne has taken three years to get any kind of consistent sustained growth back into the economy, taking good level of growth that he inherited in 2010 and slamming it into the ground with his spending review. We spent three years with stagnation and low growth, and now Osborne expects a medal and a victory lap? Do one George.

Pounds in your pocket – do you feel better off than you did three months ago? A year ago? Three years ago? Do you see “green shoots” of an economic recovery? I bet you don’t. Prices and rising faster than wages and Britain has the highest inflation in Europe – leading to a cost of living crisis. You need pounds in your pocket and Osborne hasn’t provided them. Growth is all well and good – but are you getting your share?

Whose recovery is it anyway? – a whole 0.3% of the 0.8% of growth in the last quarter came from “business services and finance”. What happened to rebalancing the economy? And whose recovery is it anyway – yours? Or George Osborne’s mates in the City of London? Add in the fact that the recovery is also weighted towards London and away from the regions, and you’ll find that most people aren’t seeing much of a recovery at all.

The America comparison – The US government is a divided and disfunctional basket case, so much so that they’ve just had a government shutdown and got worrying close to defaulting. It was also the epicentre of the 2008 crash – the home of the sub-prime mortgage. But because Obama launched a stimulus early into his presidency, the US economy has been growing for years, whilst the UK economy has been growing for months. They’re well above their pre-crash peak, we’re still below ours. Rather than securing growth – the US example shows Osborne’s cuts at a time when investment and stimulus was needed have held us back.