Sir Keir Starmer says wealth creation will be his No 1 priority as prime minister. Undoubtedly, this will be applauded by The Times’s business readers, but the big question remains. How will he go about it? With only two mentions of entrepreneurship in his party’s manifesto, what is his vision of wealth creation?
He could and should look for inspiration at his own constituency of Holborn & St Pancras, which is possibly the most exciting square mile in the world right now. First, though, there is a big challenge. We are effectively in a postwar economy: after Covid, our economy (along with much of the world’s) took a catastrophic, war-like battering.
We still have a huge amount of sick people, with 633,000 more people now economically inactive than at the start of 2020. That number is equal to the largest private sector employers in the UK. It is a 2 per cent reduction of the workforce. And that doesn’t just mean lost tax revenue, but also the added strain of more welfare payments.
I have done almost 200 episodes of my podcast Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future and I’ve discovered that the only thing you can predict with certainty is demographics. Unfortunately, in that domain the UK’s direction of travel, alongside much of the western world, is not stacked in favour of economic activity. Over the course of the next parliament, the last of the baby boomer generation, those born between 1960 and 1964, will head for retirement.
So here’s my pitch to Starmer for growth: double down on entrepreneurs. Don’t make them an afterthought. Entrepreneurship is the path to fuel this country’s growth. It’s the path to attracting high-quality migration. It’s the path to being at the heart of the technological innovation we’re witnessing.
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Entrepreneurs, unlike corporates, are often pretty hopeless at navigating the corridors of power. He needs to appoint someone who can be their point person in No 10. Or he could create a minister for entrepreneurs. He also should host the equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent for entrepreneurs, as has been floated here by Brent Hoberman.
Starmer possibly has more world-beating companies in his constituency than any other MP. It includes companies such as DeepMind and Wayve, the autonomous vehicle company that recently raised more than $1 billion. There are hopes that the King’s Cross area of London has the potential to become Britain’s Silicon Valley, located within a five-hour train ride of other key hubs, including Paris. Emmanuel Macron, after eight years as president of France, has turned Paris into an unlikely AI hub. Why can’t we do the same?
Starmer has appointed solid minds like Rachel Reeves, Darren Jones and Jonathan Reynolds. Yet none has wealth creation experience among their credentials. If I were Starmer, I would create an inner council that can advise him candidly on the direction to go. Public business councils certainly have their place, but there’s more to learn from business leaders being frank in private.
What they tell me, in private, is that while Labour has listened intently in opposition, there is much uncertainty about what the party is actually planning to do. Ending political instability is one thing, but if you have not got ideas that you want to implement, the process of government consumes you.
Starmer has already shown great creativity with the appointments of James Timpson as prisons minister and Sir Patrick Vallance as science minister. He should try to do the same for business and entrepreneurs.
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In the 1960s, the UK and the rest of the world were powered out of the postwar economy by a technological revolution, demonstrated by white goods. Generative AI could well release a similar productivity and lifestyle revolution. It offers the UK its best prospect for growth in generations. Starmer simply needs to look around his constituency to inspire the growth and wealth creation we so desperately need.
Jimmy McLoughlin hosts Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future and is a former Downing Street adviser on business
