BRIAN READE: ‘We can blame Trump for WW3 – however solely ‘dodgy’ Rachel Reeves is punishing poor’

Let me briefly recount some of the things we can blame the Trump ­presidency for.

Enabling fascists, racists, conspiracy theorists and very dim people to believe they are right about everything. Criminally insulting British troops who lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting American wars as they are dismissed as freeloaders.

Inciting attacks on journalists and empowering blood-lusting monsters like Putin and Netanyahu to make World War Three a more ­imminent prospect. But we cannot blame MAGA, as our Chancellor would like us to, for putting the British economy into intensive care. Nor attempting to pump life into it by driving 250,000 people, 50,000 of them children, into poverty.

Because Trump (who Reeves squeamishly refers to as “the changing world” for fear of upsetting him) took power more than six months after this Labour government did. A six months devoid of action, heart or vision, filled with incoherent policy, toxic negativity, lost opportunity and sheer incompetence.

Neither can she, nor Keir Starmer, keep blaming “the party opposite” for every hole they dig themselves into. Because Starmer and his ministers were evidently as prepared for Downing Street as Liz Truss was. Their nine-month shelf-life may be longer than a salad leaf but they have been about as ­effective as a wet lettuce.

I was always fearful as Starmer crept into power with no set of deep-rooted ideals to ­determine policy and no offer other than “we’re not the Tories” while winking at the right-wing media to say ­“actually, we probably are”.

Change, change, change he ­promised. Same, same, same we got. Growth, growth, growth he pledged. Flatline, flatline, flatline we got. And now, as the Mirror’s front-page angrily screamed on Thursday, we have the unprecedented sight of a Labour government “Balancing the books on the backs of the poor”.

Why not reverse the two unfunded NI employee cuts the Tories ­introduced to bribe voters before the election? Why not show how Brexit is crippling our growth and properly repair ­relations with our EU trading ­partners? Why not point out that the 350 wealthiest UK people share an £800bn fortune and a 2% levy on assets over £10m would raise £24bn annually? Then do it, instead of getting those with the least to sacrifice the most?

Reeves’ economic acumen is starting to look as dodgy as her CV and as naive as her freebie-taking. The self-inflicted wounds from her October budget were delivered a week before Trump was elected president on a mission to disrupt the world by putting America First. She failed to factor that in and any headroom she gave herself vanished.

This week she tried to correct that costly error, yet knowing Trump was about to bring in tariffs that would hammer the global economy she again gave herself no margin for error. And, even before backbenchers organise a revolt against it, her second budget already looks dead in the water.

Nobody doubts that Labour inherited a battered economy in globally challenging times, but that was all the more reason to have leaders of courage, intellect and political savvy.

We needed a Harold Wilson or a Clement Attlee in No10 with a Gordon Brown next door. Instead we have what looks like a pair of HR managers from a middling consultancy firm willing to sacrifice any principles, massage any figures and push pain on the weakest among us to stay in their jobs.