I’ve just returned from my week-long summer holiday and spent the morning catching up on the chaos. The sun may be shining over Blighty, but economic storm clouds are gathering. In just a few days, Reeves has been hit by blow after blow, pushing Britain closer to crisis.

Unemployment is up. Inflation is rising. Debt is soaring. The triple lock is under threat. Unions are plotting strikes. The Labour left is demanding more taxes. The wealthy are fleeing. Farming is in crisis as rural businesses close at a record rate. The public is growing mutinous, and the small boats keep coming.

Our public finances are on the edge. The budget deficit for June hit £20.7billion. That’s £4billion more than forecast and £7billion higher than a year ago. It’s the second-worst June figure on record, surpassed only by the pandemic-era peak in 2020.

Former Bank of England economist Andrew Sentance now predicts the annual deficit will hit £170billion, more than £50billion above official forecasts. That’s a terrifying figure. The gap will not be plugged.

And it’s piled on top of our £2.87trn national debt, which already costs more than £100billion a year in interest payments. That’s wasted money.

Worryingly, those interest costs are rising as bond markets realise that Reeves has lost control.

Yet the Chancellor can’t cut spending, the Labour left would revolt. Reeves’s much-vaunted fiscal rules are collapsing. This isn’t a temporary wobble. It’s a full-blown summer meltdown.

Britain’s deteriorating outlook hasn’t gone unnoticed. The International Monetary Fund now warns Reeves may be forced to ditch the triple lock, impose charges for NHS services or hit workers with fresh tax hikes.

In response, Reeves issued the usual robotic statement claiming the IMF report “confirms” her plan is working.

Has her brain taken a holiday too?

Reeves didn’t create the UK’s long-term economic mess. But she’s made it worse.

Last year’s decision to approve inflation-busting pay deals for public sector workers has only emboldened the unions, as resident doctors, teachers and nurses all demand more. Labour’s biggest union donor, Unite, is on the warpath. Backbench MPs are demanding fantasy tax hikes.

Reeves’s spring Budget hike in employer national insurance contributions is destroying jobs on a scale not seen for years, just as critics warned.

Unemployment hit a four-year high in May. Economic growth is slipping, with GDP down 0.1% in April and 0.3% in May.

Reeves insists she’s making Britain “better off”. The numbers say otherwise.

Lloyds Bank boss Charlie Nunn is urgently warning that yet more tax hikes will destroy growth. But that’s exactly what we’re going to get.

She’s preparing up to £30billion of tax rises in the autumn Budget, despite vowing not to repeat last year’s £40billion grab. This will pile yet more misery on hard-up families.

Markets are getting twitchy. The pound slumped on Friday after retail sales came in weaker than expected. Consumer confidence is fading fast, with voters bracing for another squeeze.

Autumn is shaping up to be even bleaker than summer.

Our incomes, savings, pensions and properties are going to be hit yet again. We’re facing three months of agony while we wait to see what Reeves does in her Budget. I wish I’d stayed on the beach.