As they entered office in mid 2024, one thing was certain about Labour’s plan for growth: they did not have one. There was no recipe book, and few raw ingredients for growth were in place. Apart from a shopping list wistfully titled “securonomics”, the kitchen at No 11 was bare.
With growth being the government’s primary mission, the absence of a growth plan has taken many of us by surprise. It is among the reasons why the government has been hostage to repeated misfortune over its first few months, buffeted rather than shaping events. This black hole, rather than the fiscal one left by the Tories, has mattered most.
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