Labour’s smartest thinker and his plan for power

Torsten Bell is set to be a rising star of Britain’s new Labour government.  

Firmly established within Sir Keir Starmer’s inner circle, the Labour MP for Swansea West already has a key role at the Cabinet Office. His reputation as a smart thinker is formidable. For more than a decade, he has been a key policy adviser to figures such as the late lamented Chancellor, Alastair Darling, and Ed Miliband during his time as Labour’s leader.  

Anyone who wants to know what Labour really plans to do with power could do no worse than consult Torsten’s recently published book entitled, Great Britain-how we get our future back.  

My first overall impression is that it’s hard to place a cigarette paper between Sir Keir Starmer’s vision for the future set out in the recent General Election campaign and the powerful arguments presented in this influential book.  

He spells out with clarity and detail the drift and decline which has beset Britain for a decade or more. During that time, he admits our country has undergone three once-in-a lifetime shocks. The 2008 Financial Crisis, plus the pandemic and the following cost-of living crisis have each left their mark on our public finances and the health of the economy.   

Torsten highlights the impact on low and middle earners of the deepest recession in three centuries followed by the highest inflation in four decades. At the same time levels of wealth have risen relative to income.  

The winners and the losers are clear. Torsten puts it this way. “What you inherit matters more than what earn.”  Expect Rachel Reeves in her first Budget as Chancellor this Autumn to set out to alter that balance.  

It’s the combination of high inequality and low growth that Torsten thinks Labour must fix. The UK is the most unequal large economy in Europe. People are poorer now than they were almost a generation ago. Average wages in 2023 are where they were in 2008.  

Building homes and the cost for the young of buying them also gets plenty of attention. Whether it’s by international comparisons or by employment terms, the under-35-year-olds are getting a raw deal in Britain. 60% of those on Zero -hours contracts in this country are in that age group and yet pensioner poverty in the UK has halved since 1990.  

Torsten goes so far as to state the clearest dividing line in British politics is age, not class. Again, I expect much of this to feature on the Labour Government’s future agenda.   

The recipe for fixing what’s gone wrong as far as Torsten’s concerned is investing in the strengths of the UK economy by “rapid incrementalism.” It may not be catchy, but for Torsten there’s no greater cause than affordable housing and “good work.” Something tells me that Sir Keir Starmer in Number Ten and Rachel Reeves at Number 11 Downing Street may well agree with him.