Labour pledges to be ‘the home of Industrial Strategy’

Following news that the government has controversially axed its Industrial Strategy Council, Labour has pledged to be the home of Industrial Strategy.

Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband has criticised the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘allergy to industrial policy’ and the government’s ‘devotion to the market’, which has seen key sectors unsupported during the coronavirus crisis and taxpayers’ money spent without conditions on companies that have closed UK plants and cut jobs.

Labour argues that the government has repeatedly let down industry throughout the pandemic. The party has highlighted a litany of failures symptomatic of the Conservatives’ aversion to industrial strategy. This includes: no sectoral support for key industries, including for the automotive, aerospace and steel industries; no mention of the steel industry in a 112 page ‘plan for growth’; no conditionality on its support for industry, where it has existed; and only one company – Celsa Steel – receiving any funding from the much trumpeted ‘Project Birch’, a scheme to support businesses in strategic sectors.

Labour also says that the government’s new National Infrastructure Bank will not solve the problems facing industry, with reports suggesting that it will provide less than half the investment lost from the European Investment Bank.

Miliband said: “Ministers have talked the talk on industrial strategy, but the Budget failed to deliver – and now their true agenda has been revealed. We have a Secretary of State for Industrial Strategy who doesn’t believe in industrial strategy. He rips up plans for a white paper and axes the Council advising him on it. It shows why the government cannot be the partner business needs to help us thrive in the future as a country, including meeting the demands of the green transition and creating the jobs we sorely need as a country.

“At a time when we need to be strengthening our industrial strategy and make it work, the government decides we don’t need one. And we see the results in a Budget which provided no support for key industries including steel and automotive, and was missing the green stimulus we need. Labour believes in the power of industrial policy, and would work with businesses and workers to grow industry, create wealth and jobs, and tackle the issues facing our society. This government’s dangerous dogma will take us backwards – and will damage businesses and jobs.”