Boris Johnson slams doom-mongers as Britain sees better than expected economic growth in bumper Brexit boost

BORIS JOHNSON blasted the “doom-mongers” yesterday after better than expected UK growth – fuelled by the best manufacturing output for two years.

In a Brexit boost for Theresa May, official figures showed GDP rose by 0.7 per cent in the final three months of 2016 – revised up from an original estimate of 0.6 per cent.

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The Office for National Statistics put the jump down to a better than expected near 2 per cent year-on-year jump in manufacturing.

Household spending and exports also rose.

It follows a slew of upgrades for Brexit Britain from red-faced officials at the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund and the OECD.

And the Foreign Secretary – the figurehead of the Brexit campaign – said: “With every day the clouds of doom and gloom we heard last year become more and more distant.

“Britain has a fantastic future ahead of it.”

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Separate figures revealed business investment slipped 1 per cent in the final quarter of last year – fuelling worries about the economy this year as inflation begins to rise.

Revisions to growth earlier last year also meant the GDP increase for the whole of 2016 was just 1.8 per cent – against an initial estimate of 2 per cent last month.

This means the UK is no longer be the fastest growing economy in the G7 – slipping behind Germany.

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But Ross Walker, chief UK economist at RBS, said: “The bigger challenges are now upon us with inflation rising but the economy is approaching this in more resilient shape than we expected in the middle of last year after the Referendum.”

The Open Britain pro-EU campaign group welcomed the revised GDP figures.

But co-executive director James McGrory said: “The good news may not last if the Government continues to pursue a hard destructive Brexit that takes us out of the Customs Union and the Single Market.”

The Treasury declined to comment.

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