In his first Spring Statement since moving the annual UK Budget to November, Chancellor Philip Hammond has delivered an optimistic forecast for the UK’s economy over the next five years.

Mr Hammond said that the UK economy has seen growth in every year since 2010, added 3 million jobs with higher employment across the UK and had reduced income inequality to lower levels than under the last Labour government.

Rejecting the opposition’s “doom and gloom” Mr Hammond said that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) figures showed that there was now “light at the end of the tunnel” for the ...