It comes as chaos and infighting swamped Downing Street in the wake of the resignation of Director of Communications Lee Cain
Business Secretary Alok Sharma will host a press conference in Downing Street today at 5pm.
Mr Sharma will deliver the coronavirus update as Boris Johnson tries to bring order to No 10 in the wake of a power struggle which resulted in the resignation of one of his closest aides.
But Downing Street insiders insisted that Mr Sharma has always been scheduled to take the press conference in the wake of an update on the UK’s economy this morning.
Statistics confirmed that the UK economy surged by a record 15.5% between July and September as Britain rebounded out of recession but the recovery slowed sharply even before the second lockdown, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the third-quarter growth was the highest since records began in 1955 and came as restrictions eased after the spring lockdown.
It saw the economy bounce back from the 19.8% contraction in the second quarter, which plunged the UK into a record-breaking recession.
But month-on-month growth slowed to 1.1% in September as the Government’s Eat Out To Help Out hospitality-boosting scheme ended and the ONS revealed that gross domestic product (GDP) was still 8.2% below levels seen in February before the crisis struck.
