Leaders | The British election

Keir Starmer should be Britain’s next prime minister

Why Labour must form the next government

Portrait of Keir Starmer
image: Diego Mallo

YOU WOULD never know it from a low-wattage campaign but after 14 years of Conservative rule, Britain is on the threshold of a Labour victory so sweeping that it may break records. No party fully subscribes to the ideas that The Economist holds dear. The economic consensus in Britain has shifted away from liberal values—free trade, individual choice and limits to state intervention. But elections are about the best available choice and that is clear. If we had a vote on July 4th, we, too, would pick Labour, because it has the greatest chance of tackling the biggest problem that Britain faces: a chronic and debilitating lack of economic growth.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The case for Labour”

From the June 29th 2024 edition

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