hit out at Labour over the economy after Rachel Reeves delivered her spring statement. The former Tory prime minister posted a sharp eight-word comment on X: "Labour continues to wreak havoc on the economy."

His comments were in response to a tweet by Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith highlighting that today's forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) do not reflect any impact of the Government's controversial workers' rights overhaul. Mr Griffith said: "This is the unexploded bomb shell from today's OBR.

"The 300 pages of job-destroying Employment Rights Bill has NOT been reflected in today's forecasts.

"When that is - and bear in mind not a single employer supports that Bill - it can only mean further downgrades."

The Employment Rights Bill includes a right to guaranteed hours, cracking down on zero-hour contracts without the offer of work, and introduces new restrictions on "fire and rehire" processes when employees are let go and then re-employed on new contracts.

But the Government's own impact assessment acknowledged that the changes could cost businesses £5 billion a year.

The OBR have said they have not yet been able to take account of the draft legislation in their forecasting as there is not enough detail available on the policy.

However they say that regulations which "affect the flexibility of businesses and labour markets" are likely to have "material and probably net negative, economic impacts on employment, prices, and productivity".

In their forecasts released today the budget watchdog halved its prediction for economic growth this year from 2% to 1%.