All about the outcome – Archive Today: London Review of Books

Conventional wisdom holds that Labour tacks left after periods in government, when it prioritises socialist ideology, and then right after election defeats, which compel the party to reprioritise electoral strategy. A recent paper by Michael Jacobs and Andrew Hindmoor, from Sheffield’s Political Economy Research Institute, suggests that this is misguided: Labour moves right when the economy is doing well and there’s money to spend, then left when the economy looks to be in crisis and structural reform is needed. Structural reform is certainly needed today. Starmer and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will need to draw deeply from the reserve of new ideas to make the big changes necessary. Reeves has already made what the Financial Times called a ‘moderately radical’ move, indicating in advance of the budget that while she will ensure national debt falls, she’ll change the measure of debt she targets, allowing more government borrowing where it’s for investment rather than day-to-day spending. Labour’s first hundred days in office were dogged by controversies over ending the Winter Fuel Payment, the acceptance of gifts of clothes and glasses, and squabbles in No. 10. But the budget and next year’s spending review will show us what Starmer’s Labour Party is really made of. Barnier recalls that when he worked opposite him, Starmer was ‘always learning. He improved, day after day, year after year.’ Let’s hope so.