Johnson Pledges ‘Big Plan’ for U.K. Post-Pandemic Prosperity
Johnson Promises ‘Big Plan’ for U.K. Post-Pandemic Prosperity
(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson promised a “big plan” to help the U.K. bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, as the prime minister seeks to revive his struggling political mission with a major speech on Tuesday.
The premier promised a wave of investment in infrastructure and skills, saying it would be a “mistake” to go back to the so-called austerity policies pursued by Conservative governments in the decade following the financial crisis. In a Times Radio interview, Johnson pledged a “Rooseveltian” approach to lift the economy, a reference to former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” following the Great Depression.
“My job now is to get our whole country bouncing back to health and building back to health,” Johnson said. “What we’re going to be talking about tomorrow is an agenda to build this nation back into a state of really long-term economic prosperity. It’s a big plan we’ll be setting out.”
The premier is battling to get the British economy firing again after the pandemic and economic lockdown caused output to crash, jobless claims to double and left the state supporting the wages of almost 12 million private sector jobs. He’s come under increasing pressure from the press and opposition Labour Party over his handling of the pandemic, which has seen the U.K. register the worst death toll in Europe.
Johnson is due on Tuesday to lay out his blueprint for the recovery, promising to spend big money on infrastructure, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak preparing to set out more details of measures to help companies restart operations in a speech in July.
Sedwill Quits
“There’s nothing wrong with ‘build, build, build’ but that’s not enough on its own. There has to be a focus, if you like, on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs,”’ opposition Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer told BBC Radio on Monday. “The prime minister is good at promising and bad on delivery, and this comes on the back of a decade of under-investment.”
Johnson also faces upheaval in the country’s civil service, after Mark Sedwill on Sunday announced his departure as cabinet secretary, national security adviser and head of the civil service. The resignation follows reports of tensions with the premier’s senior aide, Dominic Cummings, who has been pressing for a wider shake-up of the civil service.
Gus O’Donnell, a previous cabinet secretary and current member of the House of Lords, told BBC Radio that Sedwill’s departure is a “great shame” and that the U.K. needs “to reduce the turnover at the top, particularly of civil servants and of ministers.”
O’Donnell also expressed concern about the appointment of David Frost, the U.K.’s chief Brexit negotiator, to succeed Sedwill as national security adviser, saying putting a political appointee in the post risked eroding the impartiality of the civil service.
Schools Spending
“It’s a problem because political appointees are there and they are more likely to be subject to group-think, they are more likely to be yes-men,” O’Donnell said. “They are more likely to say what it is ministers want to hear as opposed to giving them good, objective, speaking truth unto power, which is what it’s all about.”
On Monday, Johnson gave an indication of the sort of stimulus spending the country can expect when he announced a plan to invest 1.8 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) in schools, including the first rebuilding program since 2014, that will see work begin on 50 schools projects as part of a 10-year plan. The estimated cost is over 1 billion pounds, with a further 760 million pounds for repairs and upgrades.
The extra spending will likely add to a record amount of borrowing this year, that has already pushed the national debt above the size of the economy for the first time since the 1960s.
The U.K. Debt Management Office said Monday it plans to sell 275 billion pounds between April and August this year, higher than the full-year record set during the financial crisis. However, in a sign of the uncertain outlook, the DMO was unable to provide any details of borrowing for the remaining seven months of the fiscal year.
Falling Behind
Johnson, who has been overtaken by Labour’s Starmer as the public’s preferred choice for prime minister, is trying to return to the policy platform that handed his Conservative Party a landslide election victory in December: a focus on getting Brexit done and “leveling up” left-behind regions of the country.
The schools rebuilding program will include “substantial investment” in northern England and the Midlands, areas where dozens of pro-Brexit Labour strongholds fell to the Tories for the first time. Johnson needs to keep these seats to stay in power.
“All children deserve the best possible start in life, regardless of their background or where they live,” Johnson, educated at Eton College and Oxford University, said in an emailed statement. “As we bounce back from the pandemic, it’s important we lay the foundations for a country where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, with our younger generations front and center of this mission.”
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