On 7 June, SPERI welcomed academics, policy researchers, and former policymakers, including several advisors of the previous Labour Government, for a symposium on the political economy of a possible future Labour government. The symposium consisted of three 1.5-hour sessions, which began with initial reflections from one academic and one practitioner and were followed by group discussion. It was organised by the co-directors of the institute, Andrew Hindmoor and Colin Hay, as well as Michael Jacobs.
The first session discussed the economic inheritance a future Labour government might face and the constraints, opportunities, and challenges this will bring. It also discussed relevant intellectual currents shaping Labour’s economic imaginary and some of its possible future trajectories. The discussion included initial remarks by Ben Clift, who spoke about the fiscal approach shaping current Labour thinking and the possibilities of a sustainable green investment agenda. Carys Roberts discussed Rachel Reeves’ recent Mais lecture, examining what it reveals about Labour’s economic agenda and its priorities, objectives, and blind spots.
The second session focused on a range of intellectual and policy influences which may shape Labour’s answers to its economic inheritance once in office. This included an in-depth discussion of policy design models and approaches to public ownership that might underpin Labour governance. Mathew Lawrence from Common Wealth began the discussion by examining whether Labour would rely on continued market provision or public ownership to shape its green agenda, discussing GB energy and how it might be extended as a broader model of public ownership to decarbonise the UK economy. Eunice Goes reflected on the politics of competence shaping Labour’s fiscal policy, and discussed how the experiences of social democratic parties across Europe might shape a Labour government.
The third and final session concluded with a wide-ranging discussion of inequality, its social and economic dimensions, how equality has been conceived historically, and the extent to which it is a relevant concern within current Labour Party thinking. The panel began with reflections from Kate Alexander-Shaw on the political economy of income and wealth inequality in the UK and its changing dynamics in the context of economic stagnation in the post-2008 landscape. Nick Pearce discussed changing concepts of equality within Labour Party thinking historically and how a Starmer-Reeves government is approaching these questions. The panel concluded with a lively debate on the relevance of social democracy within the Labour Party today.
The symposium was a highly stimulating and productive day, bringing together a unique roster of contributors spanning policy and academia to address issues at the forefront of economic policy and governance in the UK. The themes addressed at the symposium will be the subject of a grant application currently being put together by SPERI on policy reasoning and the political economy of a new Labour government.