Among the encouraging aspects of Andy Burnham’s rise to Number 10 were reports that his economic advice was coming from three wise men.
The triumvirate of former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill, ex-Bank of England economist Andy Haldane and recently departed Office for Budget Responsibility head Richard Hughes inspired hope.
Securing their full- or part-time attention is proving trickier. Among the stumbling blocks is the Prime Minister’s apparent support for wealth taxes to pay for big-ticket items such as a drive for affordable housing and an urgent lift in defence spending. Taxes on wealth are attractive to the Left with its politics of envy.
Popular support has been underpinned by the intervention of football presenter Gary Lineker and fellow multimillionaires volunteering to pay more.
That argument lost some force because of allegations that some supporters used entirely legal tax avoidance schemes.
