New Labour strategist Peter Mandelson has re-emerged to call on the opposition to overhaul its economic policy.
Lord Mandelson, a former Labour business secretary, will use a speech today to say that Sir Keir Starmer needs to “give laser-like attention to the new industrial and technology-empowered policies needed to spur growth and mitigate the effects of Brexit”.
He will explicitly question the wisdom of the party’s pledge to spend £28bn every year for a decade on the transition to net zero. “Just announcing a massive spend and a big policy goal does not in itself deliver economic growth,” he will say.
Some shadow cabinet ministers believe Labour should follow Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, and develop an economic agenda that builds national self-sufficiency and resilience to external shocks as well as remaining open to globalisation.
Starmer has been holding weekly strategy meetings with Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, to refine the party’s policy offer before an election.
