The Capitalist

Britain has a new prime minister. But will Andy Burnham’s new government reverse years of stagnation?
CapX editor Marc Sidwell sits down with Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith to ask whether Burnham is about to double down on a bigger state or finally embrace growth. They also discuss why Westminster needs more people who have actually run a company, the 'insanity' of Labour's plan to expand equal value pay claims and why putting up taxes was toxic for the Conservative Party’s brand.
Griffith argues that nationalising British Steel is a mistake – reindustrialising Britain doesn't require more subsidies or state ownership, but cheaper energy, lower taxes, welfare reform and a ruthless assault on red tape. He also explains why business confidence depends as much on certainty as on policy itself.
Plus: how Kemi Badenoch is steering her party back towards free-market principles, and what a pro-growth offer to the next generation should look like.


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Rather than letting people choose between freely-competing broadcasters, Ofcom wants to put a thumb on the scale for favoured 'trustworthy' sources, even on third-party platforms like YouTube. Smart TVs are covered too, with plans to reserve nine of the top home screen tiles for public service broadcasters.
Jack Rankin MP argues this will crush the competition and choice the sector needs, entrenching incumbents like the BBC at the expense of independent creators and commercial rivals.
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Andy Burnham is days away from becoming prime minister. According to economist Andrew Lilico, he’s inheriting an economy with almost no room left to manoeuvre – and a sense of personal virtue is no substitute for a plan, as the fate of his predecessor shows.
In this week’s episode of The Capitalist, Lilico joins Marc Sidwell to dissect the fiscal trap awaiting the new government. He argues Keir Starmer never had a theory of growth – and that Labour, having spent a decade assuming the Tories underspent, had no answer once they discovered the opposite was true.
On Burnham himself, Lilico is sceptical of the PM-to-be’s promised devolution agenda, which looks set to hand local leaders more control over spending but not the power to raise revenue. As for Burnham’s plan to bring water, energy and transport under ‘public control’, the idea that state ownership can conjure lower bills without paying the going rate of return is, in Lilico’s words, ‘very confused economically’.
Plus: why Burnham’s pick for Chancellor will be critical, and can Burnham survive to the next election?


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Nigel Farage has just resigned his seat to force a by-election in Clacton. The establishment, his allies say, is trying to destroy him. Perhaps – but have they misjudged their target?
Gawain Towler, Reform UK's director of communications from 2019 to 2024 and now a member of the party's governing board, joined CapX editor Marc Sidwell in the immediate aftermath of Farage's dramatic announcement. He argues the campaign against his former boss is misreading both the man and the country.
Towler admits the drip, drip, drip of negative stories – the donations controversy, the billionaire friends, the standards investigation – are damaging, and that Farage was at best unwise to leave his flank exposed to attack.
He sees the bad press as an artillery barrage from the establishment: wear down morale, make ordinary Reform-minded voters reluctant to associate with a movement under constant fire and hope Farage decides the fight isn't worth it. Farage, instead, has decided to fight. Will voters be admired or appalled?
What the establishment may be missing, Towler says, is the English sense of fair play. People cannot abide the appearance of the entire machine turning on one man – and the more that narrative takes hold, the more it risks generating sympathy rather than aversion.
But the central question that will define the next phase of British politics is this: can a movement built around one figure survive – or strengthen – if that figure's relatable, clubbable image is damaged by his ties to the wealthy and doubts about whether he's willing to play by the rules?


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Andy Burnham wants to escape the Westminster bubble by shipping bits of No.10 to Manchester. Neil Garratt of the London Assembly isn’t buying it – he says the BBC’s own move 15 years ago proves relocating an office doesn’t automatically transform the culture inside.
Then there’s the small matter of logistics: cancelled trains, no privacy for the journey and a Prime Minister who might need his own ‘GBR Force One’ just to get to work. Our PM-in-waiting needs to focus less on gimmicks and more on the hard job of actually reforming who government hires and how.
Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday.
Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co


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