Whether you agreed or disagreed with him, there was no denying that Nigel Lawson was a “big beast” of British politics in a way that few of his successors came close to matching — with the arguable exceptions of Gordon Brown and George Osborne.
He was one of the few Cabinet ministers with the self-confidence to stand up to Margaret Thatcher and his Budgets were genuinely dramatic Parliamentary set-pieces compared with today’s insipid pre-briefed statements.
The mark he left on London is immense. The Big Bang reforms of 1986 revolutionised the way the City did business and ended once and for all the era of long lunches and the restrictive practices that threatened to turn the Stock Exchange into a quaint backwater on the world stage.
The huge influx of foreign money that flooded into London in the wake of Big Bang marked the start of a Golden Age for the capital that made it the pre-eminent global metropolis for the best part of three decades.
But there are worrying signs that this reign may be coming to an end. The City’s status as the world’s leading international financial centre is under threat from a rejuvenated New York and the rising capitals of Asia. Brexit — a cause that Nigel Lawson enthusiastically backed — and the Government’s failure to champion London also threaten to undermine its status on the world stage.
Without the capital firing on all cylinders the UK economy cannot prosper. London once again needs a Chancellor who recognises that reality.
