UK trade deficits used to matter at election time - not any more

Harold Wilson's 1970 re-election campaign took a knock from a 0.2% deficit in goods but now a near 7% figure hardly warrants a mention

A bad set of trade figures just ahead of the election. For those with long enough memories, news that Britain's trade deficit almost doubled in February harks back to the 1970 election, when Harold Wilson's campaign was jarred by a rise in imports caused by the arrival of two new Boeing jumbo jets.

Like David Cameron, Wilson had been going around the country insisting that his long-term economic plan was working. The widening of the trade deficit, though, cast doubt on whether the government's export drive following the devaluation of the pound in 1967 was actually delivering.

Related: Widening UK trade deficit prompts fears for growth