“The politics and economics of British capitalism are not working. We need a rupture with the status quo, not more of the same.”
Jon Trickett MP wrote a piece for the Socialist Campaign Group’s 2026 pamphlet ‘The Socialist Policies We Need’. You can read the pamphlet in full below.
After more than four decades of privatisation, deregulation and shrinking public investment, millions of people are working harder than ever while feeling less secure. Wages have stagnated, housing has become unaffordable, public services have been hollowed out, and regional inequality remains entrenched. Meanwhile, wealth has accumulated at the very top, with a small minority benefiting from rising asset prices while much of the country struggles to make ends meet.
This is the result of political choices. Successive governments have embraced an economic model that places markets above communities, shareholder profits above productive investment, and short-term financial returns above long-term national prosperity. The promise was that wealth created at the top would eventually trickle down. It never did.
The truth is that the governing class has been captured by a consensus based on neoliberal economics. Britain needs to reject this failed orthodoxy and build an economy that serves working people.
The first pillar of a new settlement must be investment. For too long, Britain has suffered from chronic underinvestment in transport, energy, housing and industry. Public investment must no longer be viewed as a cost to be minimised but as the foundation of future prosperity. Building affordable homes, modern railways, renewable energy infrastructure and high-speed broadband creates jobs today while increasing productivity tomorrow.
The second pillar is rebuilding Britain’s industrial base. Manufacturing has been allowed to decline while governments placed excessive faith in financial services concentrated in London. A modern industrial strategy should identify sectors where Britain can lead—from green technology and advanced engineering to life sciences and digital industries—and actively support them through public investment, procurement and cooperation with trade unions and businesses. Countries such as Germany have long understood that successful economies are built through collaboration, not laissez-faire ideology.
Let’s consider what needs to be done to escape from the downward spiral that Britain’s governing class has pulled us all into:
- We must reconstruct the British state and the finance sector. Take the institutional relationships between the Treasury, Bank of England, and OBR. They have all conspired to create a kind of financial apartheid where a couple of square kilometres in the City attracts investment, but outside this golden circle there has been little financial backing since 2008. They have also encouraged the growth of a small elite class of billionaires whilst millions are trapped in low-paid jobs, precarious work and rising unemployment. The other project of this unholy alliance has been to justify austerity when what we need is growth and properly funded public services. It is curious that we don’t have a cabinet-level unitary department of labour encompassing all aspects of the role, as we had for more than 50 years.
- Contrary to what we’ve been told, it is not the wealthy and big corporations that generate the country’s wealth. The working class is the true engine of wealth creation. Through their hard work, labour, skill and dedication, workers produce the goods, services, and infrastructure that keep society functioning and economies growing. Yet too often, the added value they create is vacuumed up into the hands of a few, while the people who generate that wealth receive only a small share of its benefits. Recognising the central role of the working class means ensuring fair wages, secure employment and a more equitable distribution of the prosperity they help build.
- A fair economy requires stronger rights at work. Too many workers face insecure contracts, low pay and little bargaining power. Trade unions helped build Britain’s post-war prosperity and should once again be recognised as an essential pillar of economic development. There was a social contract whereby workers were respected and their voices heard. Collective bargaining raises wages, improves productivity and reduces inequality. A genuine living wage, stronger employment protections and an end to exploitative zero-hours contracts would restore dignity to work.
- There is a further point. Some sectors experience discrimination at work. There remains a pay gap and a “glass ceiling” for women. Minorities suffer worse conditions than they ought to. These issues must be resolved.
- Taxation must become fairer as well. Working people should not shoulder a heavier burden than those deriving income from wealth. Closing tax loopholes, reforming capital gains taxation and ensuring multinational corporations pay their fair share would provide resources to strengthen public services while making the tax system more equitable. Wealth generated in Britain should contribute to Britain’s future.
- Public ownership should also return where markets have demonstrably failed. Essential services such as rail, water and energy are natural monopolies where competition often exists more in theory than reality. Private ownership has too frequently resulted in higher bills, underinvestment and shareholder dividends funded by consumers. Public ownership, combined with democratic accountability and professional management, can deliver better outcomes when focused on service rather than profit. Where a sector is not immediately appropriate for public ownership but is dependent upon taxpayer money through state procurement, there must be strict rules to secure social objectives such as union recognition, proper apprenticeships, health and safety, and fair wages.
- Addressing Britain’s housing crisis demands bold action. Housing should be treated as a social necessity rather than a speculative asset. The housing market has never functioned to deliver affordable housing to our citizens. A large-scale programme of council house construction is required.
The country has fallen into a slew of despondency as a result of a failed and dangerous economic experiment. So many communities feel abandoned. Voices weren’t heard. State institutions were sliced and diced as marketisation and privatisation were imposed. The cutbacks during the austerity years all decisively weakened the government’s capacity to resolve problems which now appear intractable.
A new economic settlement needs us to create a new vision for how we rebuild our communities, create meaningful work, drive up output and pay workers a proper income. Beyond economics, we need something else: a reconstruction of the state itself on a new basis which steps outside of the damaging orthodoxy and which ends the overcentralisation of the state.
Finally, we must take a long, cool look at the domination of the finance sector, which operates in its own interest rather than that of the nation.
The politics and economics of British capitalism are not working. We need a rupture with the status quo, not more of the same.
- Jon Trickett is the Member of Parliament for Hemsworth. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
- You can read the SCG pamphlet ‘The Socialist Policies We Need’ in full here. The foreword says that “We hope this contributes to a debate across the Labour Party, trade unions and the wider movement about the political programme needed to deliver the change people voted for, to build a better future for our communities and to prevent the rise of a Trump-style government here in Britain.“
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