A Labour MP has been accused of being "economically illiterate" after arguing that the private sector would not exist without state funding and government contracts. In a column for the Express, Leo McKinstry criticised Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash, a former teacher, for making the claim this week.
McKinstry wrote that Brash has it "precisely the wrong way round", asserting that the public sector owes its existence to revenues generated by private enterprise. He argued that market forces, innovation, competition and trade count for nothing in Brash's "strange new world".
Public sector waste and growth
The column claims that credulous faith in the machinery of the state runs through Labour, with politicians blaming "under-funding" and "Tory cuts" for organisational failings. McKinstry said this partisan explanation "will not wash", stating that the public sector wastes money through outdated working practices, identity politics, weak management and a box-ticking culture.
He pointed to low productivity, high absenteeism and large bureaucracy across the public sector, noting that the civil service workforce has grown from 384,300 in 2016 to 549,700 today. He also cited the creation of new quangos, such as the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, the Fair Work Agency and Border Security Command, as examples of expanding officialdom.
Football regulator criticised
The new Independent Football Regulator was singled out for criticism, with McKinstry highlighting new posts including a £130,000 Deputy Director of Communications and a £67,000 Head of Programme Management. He questioned why this "unwanted extension of bureaucracy" is being created given that professional football is a "great British success story".
Other news items
Elsewhere in the column, McKinstry praised the comic actress Lucy Davis, star of The Office, for attending a sci-fi convention in London days after revealing she has terminal breast cancer. He described her performance as inspirational.
He also noted the revival of Belfast firm Harland and Wolff, builder of the Titanic, under Spanish ownership by Navantia, with contracts for three naval ships and a cruise liner. Additionally, he reported that an internal dossier by Birmingham Council records multiple incidents of intimidation and irregularities at over 50 polling stations during last May's municipal elections.
