George Osborne is braced for an economic update shortly before the election that could show that the recovery is slowing, but he would use the data to warn of the threat posed by Labour, Tory strategists said.
Worse-than-expected results for January published yesterday prompted warnings from economists that growth may have halved in the first three months of the year. The official GDP figures for the first quarter of 2015 will be released ten days before the election on May 7.
Conservative insiders said that evidence of a slowdown would not damage a campaign based on the party’s economic record — and could even help. Some Tories fear that voters are taking the recovery for granted and are beginning to worry more about issues such