Better economic news will not stop Tories from suffering their biggest ever defeat | Larry Elliott

Rachel Reeves will be the beneficiary of UK growth but faces a world still trying to shake off the 15-year Great Stagnation

Down the years the Conservative party has taken some heavy election beatings but the one in prospect this week could be of a different order of magnitude.

Assuming the polls are right - and they have been consistent since the start of the campaign - the Tories will do worse even than in 1906, their previous nadir. Back then, the Conservatives and their Liberal Unionist allies won just 156 seats, a repeat of which on Thursday would now be considered a good result.