We were delighted to host leading Labour Party thinkers Catherine West MP, Dr Faiza Shaheen, Miatta Fahnbulleh and Matt Zarb-Cousin yesterday for our breakfast event “Decoding Corbynism: What will a Labour government mean for business?”.
We have written up a note of the event and an updated version of our report Preparing for a Labour government is also available to read.
Our top three takeaways from yesterday’s event:
1.At its heart, Corbynism is about tackling a sense of economic injustice that is felt amongst swathes of the electorate. The appeal of Corbynism is rooted in many of the issues that gave rise to the Brexit vote.
2.The party’s business agenda is nuanced beyond nationalisation (and where this does occur, there will be accountability and democratic control rather than state bureaucracies). In particular, the party is keen to support small business, level the playing field vis-à-vis larger businesses (with a focus on paying a ‘fair share’ of tax), and rebalancing the relationship between workers and employers.
3.The party’s next manifesto will be more radical, not least because 2017’s platform was essentially a braver version of Ed Miliband’s policy prescription. The party is in policy formation mode now, but is starting the process in communities around the country rather than in Westminster. If the next manifesto is to be more radical, the party will propose redistributing wealth by introducing new taxes on capital.
