Growing the UK Economy

Lord Desai Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Desai (CB)]

My Lords, does the noble Lord not agree that, because we had a debate on growth very recently, and because the question has been raised again, what we really need is an expert committee—perhaps your Lordships’ Economic Affairs Committee—to inquire into why we have not had growth for the last 15 years and why all the policies that were tried by the last Government failed completely? If we learn from our experience, it might be more helpful than having frequent debates in your Lordships’ House.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. Obviously, it is not for me to suggest what inquiries the Economic Affairs Committee should conduct. If it were to conduct such an inquiry, I would certainly read its report with interest, and I think we would see that the record of the previous Government on the economy was nothing short of catastrophic—whether it was their austerity, which took demand out of the economy at exactly the wrong moment; their disastrous Brexit deal, which has reduced GDP by some 4%; or their disastrous Liz Truss mini-Budget. All of these things have done long-term deep-seated damage to the economy, which will take time to turn around, but I believe we are starting to turn that around and we will continue to do so.