PERHAPS somewhat lost amid the political whirlwind, the latest UK growth figures should, but will probably not, give Prime Minister Theresa May and her Government pause for thought as Brexit negotiations loom.

The UK’s quarterly growth rate more than halved in the opening three months of this year, to just 0.3 per cent.

Last week’s dismal official growth figures came just ten days after Mrs May called a snap General Election for June 8, making pronouncements about a need to have the “strongest hand” going into the European Union exit negotiations.

If this whole shambles was not so serious, and costly to the UK population at large, the gulf between the grandstanding talk and economic reality would be almost amusing.

Any card player with any sort of experience of whatever game they were playing would surely be trying hard not to let the growing panic show if they were dealt something as poor as those latest UK growth figures. But Mrs May looks increasingly desperate, with her bizarre outburst this week about our EU neighbours attacking the UK to try to influence the result of the election she has called.

It is interesting to note that, in spite of all the talk from the Brexiters about the challenges facing other EU economies, figures this week showed the eurozone managed growth of 0.5 per cent in the first quarter. While not great, this is much better than the 0.3 per cent expansion eked out by the UK.

Normally, a UK Government turning in such a weak economic performance for so, so long would get its comeuppance at a General Election.

Not so this time though, it appears, with the Conservatives miles ahead of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour in the polls.

The fact the Conservatives are getting away with such a blundering economic performance, and even at times with painting their stewardship as somehow magnificent, not only beggars belief but probably also says much about the strength of the Opposition at Westminster. The SNP is having to do all the running in terms of holding the Tories to account, although some of former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s observations about Tory behaviour, including the move on energy prices, have been astute as well as amusing.

It is important to emphasise the Conservatives’ poor economic stewardship this time round goes right back to their return to power in 2010, with their wildly over-the-top and particularly pernicious brand of austerity coinciding with pathetically below-trend growth for most of their period in power.

As was the case at the 2015 General Election, there is much worthy of great criticism when it comes to the Conservatives’ economic policies. But Labour’s lack of ability to flag the Tories’ failures to the electorate appears even greater than it was two years ago, and by a long way.

So the Conservatives continue, for the most part, to get away with their jaw-dropping portrayal of themselves as responsible stewards of the economy.

It is also important to emphasise that, if you go back far enough, it was former prime minister David Cameron’s decision to hold a referendum on EU membership that led to the UK’s very poor first-quarter growth.

The weak growth reflected the impact on hard-pressed households of the inflation surge caused by sterling’s plunge in the wake of last June’s Brexit vote. Food prices are soaring. And retailers are struggling.

UK services sector growth slowed to just 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, from 0.8 per cent in the final three months of last year. This was the weakest services growth since the first quarter of 2015.

Crucially, the figures showed output in the consumer-facing distribution, hotels and catering sub-sector dropped 0.5 per cent in the first quarter.

It will be interesting to see whether those Brexiters with short attention spans who argue leaving the EU is not going to hamper the UK economy will now acknowledge the effects. Surely, they will not try to blame the dismal first-quarter showing on saboteurs!

Scotland, of course, is not immune to the strong post-Brexit vote forces that are dragging down the UK economy, just as it has been hammered, likely disproportionately, by the Conservatives’ savage welfare cuts.

So the Scottish economy, like that in the UK as a whole, will remain under severe pressure this year as the Conservatives muddle their way through a high-stakes poker game with our long-suffering EU neighbours.

In this tough environment, the increasing signs that we are through the worst of the deep oil and gas sector downturn are more welcome than ever.

Brian Gilvary, finance chief at oil giant BP, declared this week that things boded well for the UK North Sea amid expectations the crude price would remain above $50 per barrel. BP, like others, has cut huge numbers of jobs in the North Sea so it was good to hear this seemingly more reassuring tone.

The last week has seen one of the North Sea’s first oil-producing platforms in the 1970s oil rush, Shell’s Brent Delta in the East Shetland basin, hoisted on to a specially-built vessel, and transported to north-east England to be dismantled and recycled.

There is much talk of the impending wave of decommissioning, and a focus on taking advantage of the economic benefits of this huge exercise. However, it is important to recognise this is not the beginning of the end for oil and gas on the UK Continental Shelf.

Mr Gilvary underlined BP’s belief in the potential of the giant projects it expects to bring onstream West of Shetland in coming months.

Any recovery in the fortunes of the North Sea would also help the broader economy of Aberdeen and north-east Scotland. And it would give an uplift to the Scottish economy as a whole.

At a time when Mrs May appears determined to fall out with our European neighbours over Brexit, a scenario which will elevate even further the damage to the UK from leaving the EU, an oil-related boost to the Scottish economy would be a major relief.