Rishi Sunak accuses the BBC of burying good news and parroting Labour lines on the economy
RISHI Sunak has accused the BBC of burying good news and parroting Labour lines on the economy in an astonishing slap down.
The UK economy actually grew far faster since the start of the pandemic than first thought, outpacing France and Germany.
GDP has grown by 1.8 per cent since Covid started — confounding statisticians who had predicted a 0.2 per cent contraction.
Mr Sunak told The Sun last night: “Surprisingly, that story has not found its way to the top of the BBC homepage.”
And the PM added the BBC “did cover two years of what now turns out to be completely inaccurate commentary on the British economy.”
He said: “The narrative that people have built up over the last couple of years is completely and utterly wrong.
“Keir Starmer and Labour have tried time and time again to talk down our country, to talk down our economy.
“And I’m delighted that the numbers will show they’re completely and utterly wrong.”
The welcome boost means the UK exceeded France’s growth of 1.7 per cent and Germany’s 0.2 per cent between the end of 2019 up to June this year.
It means the economy would have reached its pre-Covid size in the final few months at the end of 2021.
However, it is still lagging behind Italy, Canada, Japan and the US.
The Office for National Statistics also says GDP rose by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year up from the previous estimate of just 0.1 per cent.
The most recent GDP figures reveal strike action and bad weather in July saw the economy shrink by 0.5 per cent.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “We know that the economy recovered faster from the pandemic than anyone previously thought — and data out today once again proves the doubters wrong.”