When Keir Starmer first arrived in No 10, his “No 1 mission” was to kickstart economic growth. But, in reality, the prime minister’s approach has resembled St Augustine’s prayer: “Lord make me chaste but not yet.” Politics has always trumped economics.
If the government were truly committed to making growth a priority, it would encourage the best scientists and entrepreneurs to come to the UK, allowing the country to capitalise on their discoveries and inventions. Researchers want to come to Britain because of its reputation for academic excellence but the cost of visas and NHS fees mean the UK is losing out. Paul Nurse, the president of the Royal Society, says: “These are the most highly talented people in the world and yet we’re putting barriers in the way of getting them.”
It is the same story across Whitehall. Infrastructure projects, and housing developments, get stuck in a system afraid to take on the Nimbys and full of perverse incentives. There have been extensive planning reforms and a promise to “build baby build” but the government will struggle to reach its target to deliver 1.5m new homes in England by the end of the parliament. Just over 300,000 houses were added in the first 18 months, well short of the number needed to achieve the commitment. Further education colleges are having to turn away thousands of students who have enrolled on construction courses because they are not funded to deliver them.
Businesses are crying out for a reinvention of the education system to give children the skills and competencies they need for the workplace but, instead, the government’s curriculum and assessment review proposed minor tweaks because the government was nervous about being accused of dumbing down. Almost one million young people are not in education, employment or training and one-in-five working age people are off work sick, at a cost of billions to employers and the economy. Yet Starmer abandoned plans to reform welfare in the face of opposition from Labour MPs.
Health inequalities and the obesity crisis continue to grow because ministers do not want to be accused of creating a nanny state. Tensions are growing over technology, between those who want to harness the power of AI and others pushing for greater controls to protect children from social media.
Then there is Europe. Starmer has embarked on a “reset” with the EU that will involve closer alignment on key sectors in an attempt to repair some of the damage done by Brexit. But it is grandmother’s footsteps at a time when many businesses believe what is needed is a great leap forward. Yet again, politics has trumped economics but it is only by generating growth that Labour will turn around its electoral fortunes.
Photograph by Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street
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