Labour is still hampered by "potentially crippling strategic weaknesses" on the economy that could harm its chances of winning the 2015 general election, according to the man who wrote the party's 2010 manifesto with Ed Miliband.
Patrick Diamond, who worked for Gordon Brown in Downing Street and is now an academic at Queen Mary University of London, says Labour is "generally not trusted to manage the economy", which means that many of its policies on other issues are not believed.
In a pamphlet for the Policy Network thinktank, Diamond argues that theeconomic recovery may benefit Labour because voters believe the recovery is likely to benefit the wealthy. Voters also favour a tax system in which people on higher incomes make a greater contribution to the eliminating of the structural budget deficit.
But Diamond warns that Labour needs to do more to shore up its economic credibility before it can win a wider hearing. He writes: "If Labour is to define the politics of recovery on its own terms, however, it has to address two potentially crippling strategic weaknesses. The first is that Labour is generally not trusted to manage the economy, so there is a danger that its wider arguments are not heard by voters.
"Having conceded its reputation for economic competence in the wake of the financial crisis, the party faces an uphill battle to convince a sceptical electorate that it can govern in hard times. Labour is regarded by voters as a party of fair distribution, not of production and economic growth – yet its entire governing prospectus is predicated on the party's capacity to return the British economy to expansion."
Source: theguardian
