Chancellor Rachel Reeves was this week hit by a growing Labour party backlash over her plans to cut state spending and news that the economy shrank in January. After seven months in the job, a YouGov poll found just one in nine voters think she is doing a good job.

The UK’s economic forecast has been slashed amid downgrades for the wider global outlook as experts warned over a hit to world growth and rising inflation sparked by the mounting trade war. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) cut its predictions for UK growth to 1.

Downing Street has slapped down Rachel Reeves after the Chancellor suggested Donald Trump was to blame for Britain’s weak economic performance...