Shadow Chancellor sketches out vision for an 'environmentally sustainable' economy in step with the global trend towards government intervention
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has vowed that a Labour government would step up investment in clean technology in order to exploit the "natural resources that could make us world-leaders in renewables".
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, McDonnell argued the trend towards globalisation was shifting in favour of governments that are willing to intervene to protect their national interest.
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"The winds of globalisation are blowing in a different direction," he said. "They are blowing against the belief in the free market and in favour of intervention."
He cited the steel crisis as an example, arguing that while major governments "moved to protect their domestic steel industries" in response to a glut of cheap Chinese steel the UK government failed to act because it is "so blinkered by their ideology that they can't see how the world is changing".
"Good business doesn't need no government," he said. "Good business needs good government. And the best governments today, right across the world, recognise that they need to support their economies because the way the world works is changing."
McDonnell argued good governments support their economies is in the fields of science, R&D, and clean technologies.
"There is a huge potential in this country, and in every part of this country," he said. "We have an immense heritage of scientific research, and engineering expertise. Today, our science system is a world-leader. We have natural resources that could make us world-leaders in renewables. We have talent and ambition in every part of the country.
"Yet at every single stage we have a government that fails to reach that potential. It has cut scientific research spending, it has slashed subsidies to renewables, threatening tens of thousands of jobs, and it plans to cut essential public investment in transport, energy, and housing across the whole country."
He added that the "next Labour government will be an interventionist government".
"We will not stand by like this one has and see our key industries flounder and our future prosperity put at risk," he said, adding that Labour would mobilise a £250bn infrastructure investment programme to "ensure no community is left behind".
The speech - which also hinted at Labour's opposition to a 'hard Brexit' and included new proposals to crack down on tax avoidance; give workers a say on company boards; encourage new co-operatives, including 1,000 energy co-operatives; and raise the minimum wage - provided echoes of some of the thinking the May government is said to be exploring through its promised industrial strategy.
However, McDonnell concluded with an unashamedly "socialist" pitch to the electorate.
"Imagine the society that we can create," he said, referencing the John Lennon song Imagine. "It's a society that's radically transformed, radically fairer, more equal and more democratic. Yes, based upon a prosperous economy but an economy that's economically and environmentally sustainable and where that prosperity is shared by all."
The speech came after Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, Europe, Energy and Climate Change, Barry Gardiner, this morning announced a Labour government would impose a ban on fracking in the UK and introduce a new £90m Homes Fit for Heroes program to provide energy efficiency upgrades for injured veterans.
It also follows a speech yesterday from shadow secretary of state for environment, Rachael Maskell, in which she argued a Labour government would embrace a circular economy and would step up efforts to tackle air pollution through wider use of renewable energy, clean transport, tree-planting, and the introduction of emission zones in major towns and cities.
McDonnell's speech received a cautious welcome from CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn, who echoed wider criticism of the Shadow Chancellor's failure to provide more detailed spending plans.
"We welcome the Shadow Chancellor's emphasis on entrepreneurship and productivity growth," she said. "However, businesses will be wary of his combative tone in places and a focus on extensive intervention.
"Firms will back the commitment made to a manufacturing renaissance, supported by investment in infrastructure, skills, innovation and exports, taking advantage of historically low interest rates. But this must be fiscally responsible and based on balancing the books over the economic cycle. We look forward to seeing the detail."
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