Dr Hunt’s ghastly cure will not work

JEREMY Hunt adopted his best bedside manner as he offered a cure for our economic woes.

His verdict: The medicine is necessary but it is going to hurt.

There were a few flowers to brighten the ward – as pensions and benefits will rise with inflation – but there was no escaping the treatment will be long and painful.

He said claiming easy answers was not being straight with people. But he was far from honest about why households are facing the biggest fall in living standards since records began.

He wanted to blame a recession made in Russia – one that had nothing to do with Liz Truss’s 45-day wrecking spree or Boris Johnson’s botched Brexit deal.

COMPELLING

Hunt sought to convince voters the economy is once again in safe hands but Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented a picture of 12 years of failure that have left us weaker and poorer.

Labour will be seen to have the more compelling argument – partly because patients are less likely to trust a doctor from the same hospital which made them sick. But it is also because for all Hunt’s reassuring words, there is no avoiding how miserable the next 12 months will be.

In the 1980 US presidential election Ronald Reagan repeatedly asked voters “Do you feel better off than you were four years ago?”

When we next go to the polls we will be asked if we feel better off than 14 years ago.

And the answer will be a resounding No.