The Labour Party and economic management

Abstract

Changing Labour’s policies on the economy became a priority for the Party’s leaders after 1983. Opinion polls throughout the 1980s consistently showed that Labour was perceived as less competent than the Conservatives in this respect. In particular, Labour was not trusted either to keep down taxation or to control inflation. Labour’s poor reputation had several causes, only some of which could be tackled through the mechanism of the Policy Review. Labour’s commitment to a steady expansion of public ownership had been a key part of its 1930s programme. From the evidence of the Policy Review, however, Labour has not undergone the kind of conversion to free markets experienced in recent years by the New Zealand Labour Party. For Labour the competitive weaknesses of the British economy can only be remedied by purposive government action.