IEA - Corbyn promises discredited and unfunded policies

29 Sep 2016 09:14 AM

Commenting on the Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to Labour Party Conference, Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“This was a speech full of discredited policies and unfunded promises. It’s a basic truth that economic growth doesn’t come from borrowing one’s way out of debt. Jeremy Corbyn may wrap his Party’s policies up as “borrowing to invest”, but in reality his speech amounted to a raft of unfunded pledges which could only be paid for through extreme tax hikes.

“He offered full employment, despite the UK currently enjoying the lowest unemployment figures for 11 years, and a ban on zero-hour contracts, despite the fat that almost 70% of those on them are happy with the number of hours they work.

“He also pledged to impose private rent controls; a measure that has never worked before and will only worsen the housing crisis, and make it harder for newcomers to get on the housing and rental ladders. In a similar vein, hiking the minimum wage up even further will only serve to price the young and low-skilled out of the job market even more.

“Rail renationalisation may be popular, but the evidence is clear: heavy political interference leads to gross mismanagement and a poor allocation of resources and investment. Deregulation would give rail firms more control, allowing them to stagger fares, better distribute demand and ease overcrowding.

“Many of the problems diagnosed by the Labour Leader are a result of political interventions themselves, making life much more expensive for families across the country. This centralising, regressive and wrongheaded speech will do absolutely nothing to address the real problems people deal with daily.”

Notes to editors:

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The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

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