Boris Johnson 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 who pointed out 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.

It comes as the budget watchdog has slashed UK economic growth forecasts in half for this year.

The OBR said that it expects UK gross domestic product (GDP) to rise by just 1% in 2025.

The Chancellor pledged to tear down red tape and increase investment more quickly after the prediction was reduced from 2%.

Elsewhere, unemployment is now on track to strike 4.5%, or around 1.6 million people, this year, as the forecaster increased its previous prediction of 4.1% for 2025.