There is indeed an appetite for a more left wing approach among the grassroots of the party, represented by Andy Burnham’s ‘Mainstream’ movement, who advocate policies such as nationalisation of the utilities, wealth taxes and opposition to welfare cuts. These policies, once advocated by Keir Starmer when he was campaigning for leadership of the party, as Burnham is campaigning now, were ditched by Labour for good reason: they would bring economic disaster to the country. Nationalisation of water would cost £100 billion and the cost of nationalising gas and electricity would be £185 billion. The imposition of wealth taxes would not only be unfair on asset rich but income poor people - it would also encourage wealth producers to leave the country. The annual cost of welfare benefits is currently around £300 billion, representing around a quarter of government expenditure, an unsustainable drain on the economy. If Burnham were ever to win the leadership and become Prime Minister, I suspect that he would ditch these policies just as Starmer has. In this case, no doubt, a new protest movement would spring up among the grassroots unwilling to relinquish their brand of utopian socialism, campaigning to replace Burnham with another populist.
Steven Rose ● 389d