A spokesperson for Rachel Reeves has been in touch to say that, in the extracts from her Mais lecture released overnight, she is not saying that Margaret Thatcher ushered in a “decade of renewal”.
Here is the quote in full.
I remain an optimist about our ability to rise to the challenges we face. If we can bring together public and private sectors, in a national mission – directed at restoring strong economic growth across Britain.
When we speak of a decade of national renewal, that is what we mean. As we did at the end of the 1970s, we stand at an inflection point, and as in earlier decades, the solution lies in wide-ranging supply-side reform to drive investment, remove the blockages constraining our productive capacity, and fashion a new economic settlement, drawing on evolutions in economic thought.
A new chapter in Britain’s economic history. And unlike the 1980s, growth in the years to come must be broad-based, inclusive, and resilient.
The spokeperson accepts that, when Reeves talks about supply-side reforms offering the solution “as in earlier decades”, she is referring to the 1980s. But Reeves is not endorsing the whole Thatcher experience, the spokesperson suggested. The spokesperson said that, in the sentence “when we speak of a decade of national renewal, that is what we mean”, she is referring to what she was talking about in the previous sentence (what might happen under Labour), not to what she references in the following sentence (what happened under Thatcher).
I’ve amended the headlines in the posts at 9.16am and 12.44pm to make allowance for this.
Updated
Early evening summary
A Labour government will make fighting global heating a priority for the Bank of England as it seeks to put environmental sustainability at the heart of its plans to grow the economy, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is to announce. She has also been criticised by Labour leftwingers for saying the party Labour wants an “inclusive” version of the supply-side policies that led to economic revival following Margaret Thatcher’s election in 1979. (See 12.44pm.)
We are now closing this blog, thanks for following developments with us today.
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