THIS week’s figures from the International Monetary Fund were further damning evidence that the Tories’ eight years of austerity have failed and that Britain needs a fundamental change in our entire economic model.

Specifically, the IMF’s latest Fiscal Monitor report has shown that the UK’s public finances are close to the worst of major developed countries, showing that even on its own terms — even before taking into account the human misery it has caused for millions and the continuing spending cuts that are pushing our public services more and more into crisis — that austerity has been an abject failure.

As shadow chancellor John McDonnell put it in his response, “The worst spending cuts for generations and the privatisation of public assets has seen the government sink deeper and deeper into the red, even as living standards decline and public services crumble.”