If you were Rachel Reeves, you could be forgiven for tearing your hair out. Official figures released yesterday showed that we were starting to see an economic recovery, just before Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed a new Middle East war and destroyed it.

UK GDP expanded by 0.5 per cent in February, way up on the 0.1 per cent forecast from economists. There was a strong performance in services, manufacturing and construction.

It completes the picture of tentative but convincing economic recovery. Inflation was easing, partly as a result of energy price cuts and other bill freezes announced at the Budget. The cost of borrowing was lower than expected. The headroom on the Chancellor’s fiscal rule was up slightly.

We were starting to turn a corner. Things were looking up. And then the war started and everything was blown to smithereens, including our economic rehabilitation.

This will be one of many reasons that the Chancellor seemed so frustrated and impatient on her visit to Washington this week. Faced with a series of Trump administration talking points from her interviewer during the Invest In America Forum in Washington, Reeves replied curtly: “It’s not been clear over the last six weeks or so what exactly the aim of this conflict is.”

When she was told that the US blockade was intended to ensure negotiations, her response was withering.........

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