Darren Jones appears to have discovered some sound economic principles now he has lost his job and resents the man who binned him. Writing in the Times this morning, he warns against higher public spending and the “sugar rush of short term announcements“:
“Britain is poorer than we often think. We won’t get richer based on higher public spending alone, and we can’t tax billionaires who don’t live here…
“We shouldn’t rely on public spending as a route to some romantic version of making Britain great again as we look in the rearview mirror for a great history that is no longer available to us…
The prime minister will publish a ten-year plan in November. This plan must rise to these challenges, or the sugar rush of short-term announcements will be meaningless in the face of the populist backlash that will follow.”
Who is this man, and what has he done with the old Darren Jones? This can’t be the same person who sat in the Treasury and then the Cabinet Office while the Starmer government raised public spending by £139 billion…
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”