During the campaign, Starmer spent a lot of time reminding us that he was a "son of a toolmaker". This was his attempt at proving his humble credentials.

Perhaps that also gave him the idea that he knew how to handle a laser. His plan was to deploy it to get the economy growing so that we'd all feel richer.

Instead he's aimed his laser straight at the heart of the economy, and obliterated it.

His first error was too depress the hell out of everybody by explaining what a mess the UK was in and the brutal steps Labour would take to put things right.

Immediately, the economy froze in horror. Businesses stopped investing. Consumers refused to spend. Homes movers stayed put for fear of what Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves were plotting.

Others were whipped into a frenzy. Buy-to-let investors sold up. Pensioners grabbed their tax-free cash while they still could. Wealthy non-doms bid for a golden ticket out of the UK.

Instead of a laser-like aim, it was like Starmer had run amok and blasted the economy with a scattergun.

We saw the impact last Friday. In the first three months of the year, under the Tories, the UK economy grew 0.7%. In the second quarter, it grew another 0.5%.

Labour took power in the first week of the third quarter. The impact was immediate, and disastrous. Growth slumped to just 0.1%.

In the final month, September, GDP shrank by 0.1%. Starmer had zapped the life out of it.

On October 30, Reeves got in on the act, but instead of a laser her weapon of choice was a Himars missile. She loaded a staggering £40billion of tax cuts onto businesses, while pledging to borrow another £30billion.

She blew everything to pieces.

If we get any growth in the final quarter of the year, I'll be astonished.

Both the Bank of England and Institute for Fiscal Studies have warned that Reeves' tax-and-spend rocket would whip up another inflationary storm, just as the old one was finally dying out.

As I reported yesterday, insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor expects a loads of companies to go bust as a direct result of Reeves' Budget.

Reeves appears to have absolutely no idea of the damage she has unleashed, .

The Budget backlash is coming thick and fast. Every day, new emergency warnings are issued.

This morning, Britain's biggest companies wrote to warn Reeves that shops will close, jobs will go and prices will have to rise because of her decision to hike employer's National Insurance.

More than 70 firms including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Asda and Next said the "sheer scale" of new costs on businesses means that job losses are "inevitable".

Other signatories included Amazon, Boots, Aldi, Lidl, Ocado, Morrisons, Greggs, Currys, B&Q, Burberry, JD Sports, Holland & Barrett, Oliver Bonas and Specsavers.

That's quite a rollcall. And if you shop at any of them, you can expect to pay more as they protect their margins by passing on Reeves' tax bill to consumers.

The Treasury has been quietly warning businesses not to go public on their complaints. Threats have been issued, from what I gather.

Which may explain why so many added their name to the letter. Safety in numbers and all that.

The shops are the mainstay of our ailing high streets. Until Starmer and Reeves set about them.

I've spoken to a number of family-owned businesses who will be blasted apart by the Budget, including one that says .

They'll have to sell up to foreign buyers. Yet another company destroyed.

So much for Labour's laser-like focus on building wealth. Instead, they seem hell bent on wiping it out. That's the problem with lasers, you have to be careful where you point them.