{"id":798960,"date":"2026-05-15T20:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/798960\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:26:16","slug":"from-team-reeves-to-manchesterism-labours-four-economic-camps-explained-economic-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/798960\/","title":{"rendered":"From Team Reeves to Manchesterism: Labour\u2019s four economic camps explained | Economic policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wes Streeting may not have launched a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer, but he has called for a \u201cbattle of ideas\u201d<\/a> about the government\u2019s future direction.<\/p>\n

When it comes to economic policy, there are (at least) four overlapping Labour<\/a> camps, which have recently generated a flurry of policies from which the leadership contenders could choose. Here we run through the main ideas behind each camp.<\/p>\n

Team Reeves<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rachel Reeves seized on Thursday\u2019s positive economic data \u2013 stronger than expected 0.6% growth<\/a> in the first quarter \u2013 as evidence that she has \u201cthe right plan\u201d.<\/p>\n

As set out in her Mais lecture earlier this year<\/a>, that involves embracing the opportunities of AI, devolving more tax revenues to metro mayoralties, and seeking to negotiate a closer trading relationship with the EU.<\/p>\n

Reeves has also rewritten the fiscal rules to allow for significantly more public borrowing for investment, but is aiming to balance day-to-day spending with tax revenues. To that end, she has raised taxes significantly<\/a>, with a focus on higher earners and businesses.<\/p>\n

Rachel Reeves has insisted that she has \u2018the right plan\u2019. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP<\/p>\n

Since Donald Trump launched his war on Iran, which Reeves has described as \u201cfolly\u201d<\/a>, she has insisted that any support for households will have to be targeted to the less well-off, instead of the costly across-the-board approach favoured by Liz Truss in 2022.<\/p>\n

Reeves is expected to say more next week about how she will shield consumers from the coming inflationary shock.<\/p>\n

The chancellor\u2019s outriders have also been arguing that a change of personnel in No 11 could trigger a damaging crisis in the bond markets that would drive up the government\u2019s borrowing costs.<\/p>\n

Labour Growth Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chaired by the Milton Keynes North MP, Chris Curtis, who described Streeting this week as a \u201conce in a generation talent\u201d, the Growth Group has conveniently just published a policy prospectus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grandly titled \u201cAn Honest Day: a new economic settlement for Britain\u201d, it argues that too much wealth in the UK accrues to people just for holding assets.<\/p>\n

Echoing the \u201cabundance\u201d agenda developed by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in the US<\/a>, it blames this on the \u201crationing\u201d of assets, as a result of failures by the state \u2013 through restrictive planning regulations, for example, or policies that make energy expensive.<\/p>\n

To tackle these challenges, the Growth Group calls on the government to lift the tax burden on workers and focus on cutting the cost of basic essentials.<\/p>\n

It would like to see the tax rate on capital gains and income to be equalised, for example \u2013 completing a shift already begun by Reeves. It says the additional revenue raised could then be used to fund a 2p cut in employee national insurance.<\/p>\n

The Growth Group believes Thames Water should be allowed to collapse into government control. Photograph: Neil Hall\/EPA<\/p>\n

Regulations should be cut back for many markets, the Growth Group argues, but the state should stop colluding in what it calls \u201cfake market capitalism\u201d for essential services such as water.<\/p>\n

To that end, it calls for long-troubled Thames Water to be allowed to collapse into government control. \u201cThe message should be unmistakable: the public is not the backstop for owners who treated essential infrastructure as a financial chip in a casino where they never lose. In essential services, ownership comes with obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other policies include devolving more power to the mayoralties and reining in the Treasury, which it argues currently acts as \u201cthe unaccountable veto\u2010player over the elected programme\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tribune Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an edition of the policy journal Renewal<\/a> this week, Labour MPs from the soft left Tribune Group, including the former transport secretary Louise Haigh and the backbench MP Yuan Yang, Tribune\u2019s secretary, gave a similar economic diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too many people, hard work no longer guarantees rising living standards,\u201d they argued, while, \u201cgrowth has been too weak, too uneven, and too often driven by asset inflation rather than productive investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

They put more emphasis than the Growth Group on making space for more borrowing to invest \u2013 with development corporations such as in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, and planned new towns, able to borrow directly, for example.<\/p>\n

Over time, Haigh also argues that the fiscal rules should switch to being measured over a 10-year horizon, to take more account of the long-term benefits of investment \u2013 although she cautiously insists this should take place only when the current budget is balanced, to avoid spooking bond markets.<\/p>\n

Louise Haigh\u2019s proposals for tax reforms are more radical than anything contemplated by the Growth Group. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Haigh\u2019s proposals for tax reforms are more radical than anything contemplated by the Growth Group \u2013 including scrapping stamp duty and cutting council tax in favour of a new property and land tax and closing inheritance tax loopholes, alongside moving capital gains tax rates closer to income tax.<\/p>\n

Yang argues that depressed consumer demand is one factor holding back economic growth. To ease the cost of living crisis and thereby boost demand, she urges the government to cut costs for households \u2013 echoing moves made by Reeves at last year\u2019s budget but going much further.<\/p>\n

Yang\u2019s suggestions include reforming energy pricing to cut poorer households\u2019 bills; capping bus fares and clamping down on the rip-off property management fees charged to many leaseholders.<\/p>\n

Any potential soft-left candidate \u2013 Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham<\/a> or Ed Miliband \u2013 might be expected to draw on ideas such as these.<\/p>\n

A wider constellation of leftwing thinktanks including the New Economics Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have also been publishing radical policy proposals, partly in the hope of influencing potential challengers \u2013 with the latter advocating rent controls <\/a>this week, for example.<\/p>\n

Mainstream\/Manchesterism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mat Lawrence, the director of the thinktank Common Wealth, has written a lengthy piece for this week\u2019s New Statesman on \u201cManchesterism\u201d, aiming to encapsulate what lessons could be learned from Burnham\u2019s mayoralty for the wider UK.<\/p>\n

A taster for a report to be published by the Burnham-aligned campaign group Mainstream, its central argument is about what it calls a Productive State, doing more things directly, through public ownership \u2013 building social housing, for example.<\/p>\n

Like the Growth Group, Mainstream would like to see Thames Water placed into a government-run special administration; and like Tribune it calls for public corporations to be able to borrow directly, to finance investment projects.<\/p>\n

But it sees this as part of a more ambitious project, for the state to take over where the private sector is failing. Lawrence cites the eminent 20th-century economist John Maynard Keynes, calling for what he called the \u201csomewhat comprehensive socialisation of investment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mainstream cites Andy Burnham\u2019s Bee Network transport reforms as an example of socialisation of investment. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA<\/p>\n

He cites Burnham\u2019s transport reforms as an example of how this can work: \u201cThe Bee Network\u2019s restoration of bus routes in Manchester that private operators had abandoned is the practical demonstration: where private calculation withdraws, public provision steps in and serves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence argues the Bee Network has been able to increase passenger numbers and hence reduce costs.<\/p>\n

The suggestion is that a similar approach could be pursued in other areas where there are public policy goals the private sector is not meeting \u2013 \u201cwhat has been done for buses can be done with similar ambition for energy, water, housing, and care\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alongside a greater role for the state, Burnham is also expected to base his economic pitch on a bolder approach to negotiations with the EU \u2013 with many Labour MPs keen to see the government flex the constraints of its manifesto and seek a closer deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting may not have launched a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer, but he has called for a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":798961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-798960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116580475710887606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}