Business and trade unions are increasingly convinced that Labour’s economic team headed by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have what it takes to bring back growth to our economy and be able to fund public services adequately.

 

Whether in or out of Parliament I have always kept in touch with a variety of different trade and membership organisations to learn about the latest trends in our economy and our society. Last week I spoke at the ABMEC Conference in Nottingham. This body represents the mining equipment and supply industry. Many of the companies involved have their roots in the British Coal Industry but now export around the world. I also attended the Association of Drainage Authorities Conference with Emma Hardy MP for Hull West and Hessle the Shadow Minister for Flooding.

 

Whichever organisation you speak to these days they want a government that will have a plan and stick to it for the long term. As one commentator put it in today’s Observer, over the last 13 years the Tories have ‘been too busy treating politics as a grotesque form soap opera to manage and develop the economy properly’.