CHANCELLOR George Osborne’s economic strategy is wrecking Britain’s manufacturing industry and driving the country into deeper recession, according to statistics published yesterday.

With the steel industry on the point of collapse, the British manufacturing sector has shrunk by 0.3 per cent in the last quarter and construction activity has fallen by 2.2 per cent — while millions of people struggle to find an affordable home due to a lack of social housing.

Commenting on the official figures for gross domestic product, the measure of national economic performance, Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: “Osborne’s rhetoric of recovery is becoming more and more divorced from reality as the UK’s steel industry heads for crisis and manufacturing and construction contracts.

“With successive months of feeble figures, it is blindingly clear that the government’s present polices are not working.

“There will be trouble ahead for our prime industries and their communities if the government does not change tack now.”