LIKE a drowning swimmer clutching at any passing driftwood, the government is touting the increase in gross domestic product as proof its economic policy is working.

Certainly the news was a useful distraction during a week dominated by Keir Starmer’s lurch into Enoch Powell-style anti-migrant rhetoric.

It also draws attention away from today’s other announcement, that NHS waiting lists are rising once more, reversing one of Labour’s few successes to date.