In response to Keir Starmer’s Conference speech, Emily Fielder, Head of Communications at the Adam Smith Institute, said:

Where Sir Keir diagnoses the problems correctly, his solutions miss the mark. He is right that inflating demand without increasing supply will raise house prices, and that we need to get ‘shovels in the ground,’ but unfortunately his only supply side suggestion is weak, and he’d rather stoke more demand and target the red-herring of second homeowners. 

Similarly, while he pushes for nuclear, hydropower, and innovative solutions, he plans to back it through taxpayer subsidies and a new state-owned energy company. Previous attempts at state-owned energy resulted in massive subsidies and taxpayer-funded bailouts. There is no indication that Great British Energy will fare any differently. 

However, he does at least recognise some limits of Labour’s expensive, taxpayer funded policies, saying himself that they won’t be able to deliver ‘good Labour policies’ until the public finances allow. Labour’s magic money tree may have finally disappeared. 

ENDS

Notes to editors:  

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Emily Fielder, emily@adamsmith.org | 0758 477 8207.

The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, neoliberal think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.