Britain has fallen into recession in a blow to Rishi Sunak as he prepares to fight a general election this year.

The economy shrank 0.3pc in the final three months of 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It follows a similar decline in the previous three months, pushing the economy into its first technical recession since the economy locked down four years ago.

The figures mark the end of a week of crucial economic data for the Prime Minister that saw inflation remain steady but rising sickness continue to hurt the economy.

The UK remains the only G7 nation yet to return to pre-pandemic employment levels.

Growing the economy was one of Mr Sunak’s five key pledges at the start of last year.

Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday that growth over the past year had been driven by government spending, noting that “the market economy was negative last year”.

However, the Governor of the Bank of England added that more recent survey data suggested there were “some signs of the beginning of a pickup” driven by expectations of lower interest rates this year.

Mr Sunak has only met one of its goals to halve inflation, which held steady at 4pc in January and is predicted to halve again to 2pc in April.

Read the latest updates below.