John Healey: “It's a sign of resilience in the UK economy that some had not expected”

The step back from this is that the future of Ukraine is the future of European security, and that’s why it’s so crucial that Putin doesn’t prevail.

Despite conflicts in the Middle East and Europe hitting people across the world, today's figures offer more proof of Britain's resilience in the face of these global shocks.

We will meet those fiscal rules, and I think one of the hallmarks of the IMF’s backing of our fiscal plans is recognition that there isn’t just a forecast for the future, but there’s some evidence of performance already.

But Britain’s economy is showing strong international resilience in the face of these challenges: we’re forecast to be the joint second fastest-growing G7 nation in 2026 and have the lowest deficit in the G7 by 2031.