Next Government must be focused on growth, not tinkering

There are parts of California where it rains no more in a year than Britain received in a month in April. 

Admittedly they are largely uninhabitable desert, but they will provide Rishi Sunak with a dry refuge should he one day decide to relocate to the west coast after the UK political career comes to an end.

How the Prime Minister must hate the sight of the wet stuff cascading down as it seems to have done almost without a break since last October.

The deluges of April are blamed for the particularly soggy set of GDP figures published today with retail and construction taking the brunt. Most City economists say we should look through the torrents and to the brighter bigger picture ahead. 

After the April blip, growth will return with the (slightly) sunnier days of May and June and beyond. Well they are probably right. But it does not hide the fact that one of the shallowest recessions in economic history is likely to be followed by yet another anaemic “recovery.” 

Growth for the year as a whole may reach the heady heights of 1%, come rain or shine. If Labour does come to power with a majority big enough to effectively give it a 10-year mandate it needs to abandon the timid tinkering that has characterised British economic policy for decades. 

A proper thought out, intellectually rigorous agenda for growth needs to be at the forefront of its priorities, or it will become just another administration playing around with deck chairs on a heavily indebted, slow moving and gradually sinking ship of state.

It has been a long time since a prime minister was able to focus on a positive agenda for the country beyond endless and depressing rounds of austerity and fire-fighting — arguably Tony Blair was the last. 

Without delivering growth Keir Starmer will join the list of PMs who end up sinking as the waters close over them.