When the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 by the six nations that founded the European Economic Community, Italy was by far the poorest member. This was a boon not a burden. With a low-cost, high-quality manufacturing base and falling tariffs within the bloc, Italy became a European industrial player. Cash from Brussels helped to power the economy but so did farm workers moving to find work in factories. By 1987 Italy had il sorpasso, the moment when it celebrated overtaking Britain in terms of per capita income. Yet in 2021, Italian GDP per head was roughly 10% below the UK.
Economic catch-up is easier than staying ahead of the pack. This ought to deter politicians from reading too much into growth rates. Yet that is what Sir Keir Starmer attempted with his warning that Britain could soon be “overtaken by Poland”. Sir Keir imagined British voters would be humiliated by finding themselves being notionally poorer than those in a former Communist state. But the Labour leader exposed a neurosis that grips him perhaps more tightly than the public.
