Harold Macmillan told Britain in 1957 it had "never had it so good". The economy nosedived the next year. Yesterday, official figures confirmed what economists had feared for months: that the UK had suffered its worst slump in output for 50 years. Not since Macmillan was in power has Britain had it so bad.

The UK would almost certainly have to wait at least two years before it regained the output lost over the past year, economists warned. The figures showed the worst quarterly performance since 1958, a 2.4 per cent fall in gross domestic product for the first three months of 2009.