The writer is director of the Center-Left Renewal project at the Progressive Policy Institute and former Labour executive director of policy 2020-22As the Labour party looks increasingly likely to form the next UK government, it would do well to heed the warnings as well as the successes of the Biden administration’s investment programme unfolding in America.
Undoubtedly ambitious, the programme can reasonably claim to have contributed to the relatively strong growth and jobs rate in the US — hence Labour leader Keir Starmer’s desire to set out an economic plan that follows in its wake. Wages are up in America and inflation is coming down. With less than a year until the election, the US administration should have cause for optimism.
But the polling for President Joe Biden is dire, with the latest surveys placing him behind former president Donald Trump in key swing states that will determine the outcome of the overall contest. There are loud murmurings about a Democrat challenger to be the “next generation” figure. The party’s problems don’t start and end with a judgment on Biden, however. Their economic policies — much heralded by the centre-left worldwide, not just in the UK — are just not landing with the voters the Democrats need. Not yet, anyway.