An abundance of caution for a ‘stagnation nation’? Financial services policy development in post-growth Britain

Abstract

This commentary discusses the relationship between the UK Labour Party and the financial services sector in the context of an approach to economic policy and growth. It highlights the historical scepticism of the Labour Party towards financial services, rooted in ideology and practical experience alongside a recognition of the need to engage with the sector to promote economic growth and investment. The Labour Party’s evolving stance towards financial services is outlined, which has oscillated between support in the 1990s and early 2000s, to a more critical view in the 2010s, with a more recent return to advocacy. The commentary draws attention to a tension in the party’s encouragement of an industry that can provide economic growth at home, while at the same time being wary of developing policies designed to provide necessary growth in other areas, such as in green technologies, but that might incur the disapproval of global financial investors. Labour’s dilemmas are illustrative of the contemporary problems of policy formation in a relatively small but open economy, where options to promote growth and green investment are constrained in the face of the disciplinary power of global financial capital.