In Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’s world, everything is just dandy. The cost-of-living crisis is over, inflation is falling, the economy is growing, housebuilding is booming and it’s all because they’ve brilliantly fixed the foundations of the UK economy. That’s the message they’re trying to flog us today. They’re hoping reckon it’ll spark a dramatic turnaround in their political fortunes. It won’t.

There’s a problem. Voters inhabit the real world, where none of this matches their daily experiences. They’re not fools, and know what’s really going on. But that won’t stop Starmer and Reeves. Time and again they’ve stretched the truth, arrogantly assuming we’ll swallow their lies. We’ve had grand pledges, slippery statistics and a conveyor belt of U-turns, at least 15 and counting. Now they’re going into overdrive.

Starmer and Reeves need a reality check. So here’s a brisk audit of their headline claims against the hard numbers.

First, Starmer claims inflation is falling thanks to his government’s “choices”. Yes, inflation dipped from 3.4% to 3% in January. But in June 2024, the month before Labour took office, inflation stood at just 2%. Today, it’s 50% higher than the rate they inherited. Yet Starmer claims to have cut inflation. It’s pathetic.

The PM even had the gall to claim that “lower food prices” were easing the cost-of-living crisis. That simply isn’t true. Food prices aren’t “lower”, they’re just rising at a slower pace than before. Claiming otherwise is economically illiterate. And this man is our PM?

He also takes credit for falling petrol prices, conveniently ignoring the fact that these are driven by global oil supply and demand, not the UK government.

Similarly, Reeves boasts about six interest rate cuts on her watch. But it’s the Bank of England that sets rates, not the Chancellor. They might have fallen a lot further had she not driven inflation up through her disastrous tax-and-spend policies.

Her £26billion rise in employer’s National Insurance, two huge minimum wage hikes and generous public sector pay hikes are all inflationary.

Starmer and Reeves also bang on about growth. Yet the economy grew just 0.1% in the third quarter of last year and 0.1% in the final quarter too. Those are rounding errors. The economy would be growing far faster if Reeves hadn’t taxed it to a standstill.

Months after Labour took power, I poured ridicule on their grandstanding claim they’d build 300,000 homes a year, a total of 1.5 million over five years.

I said housebuilders simply didn’t have the capacity, and I was right. Projections now suggest Britain will build at most 167,000 homes a year, little more than half Starmer’s target.

There’s actually been a 40% drop in housing starts compared with 2023, when the Tories were in power.

Reeves talks about protecting jobs, yet unemployment has climbed from 4.1% to 5.2% on her watch, adding almost half a million to the dole queue. Youth unemployment is surging. It’s a disaster – and she should own it. How dare Labour talk of renewal while blighting the prospects of an entire generation?

Every politician talks up their achievements. These two have more reason than most, because they have no real achievements to speak of. The gap between rhetoric and reality is widening. And voters, living in the real world, can’t help but notice.