Britain haters were on the receiving end of a brilliant slap down from Andrew Neil this morning, after new GDP figures from the ONS showed Britain’s economy performing much better than previously believed.
The stats body published new figures showing that the British economy recovered faster from the pandemic than anyone previously thought the UK is now among the fastest countries in the G7 to recover from the pandemic
Responding to the news, Andrew Neil delivered a mock apology to “so many on Twitter” who detest seeing good news about Britain.
He cited: “UK economy is now bigger than before the Covid-19 crisis. Indeed UK growth higher than Germany and France, new revisions to official data reveal.
“GDP 1.8 percent per cent larger than final months of 2019 (ONS). Britain’s GDP reached its pre-Covid size way back in the final months of 2021.
“So much for being worst performing economy in the G7, which is actually Germany, whose economy is about the same size as before the pandemic.
“UK has also outpaced France, post-pandemic.”
While Mr Neil conceded that UK GDP growth is “still nothing to write home about” he pointed out that that’s “true of almost every major economy post-pandemic”.
“As I say – apologies. I know how much this will upset so many of you.
He cheerily concluded: “But cheer up. The weekend beckons.”
The UK’s 1.8 percent recovery is higher than France’s 1.7 percent and Germany’s 0.2 percent – and only slightly behind Italy’s 2.1 percent.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also celebrated this morning’s economic news, which also saw expected GDP growth at the start of next year revised up by three times.
Mr Hunt said the data once again “proves the doubters wrong”.
“We know that the British economy recovered faster from the pandemic than anyone previously thought and data out today once again proves the doubters wrong. We were among the fastest countries in the G7 to recover from the pandemic and since 2020 we have grown faster than France and Germany.
“The best way to continue this growth is to stick to our plan to halve inflation this year, with the IMF forecasting that we will grow more than Germany, France, and Italy in the longer term.”
