Back to the Future? Rishi Sunak's Industrial Strategy

Abstract

Since becoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has been variously described as pursuing a ‘furtive’, ‘surreptitious’ and ‘apologetic’ industrial strategy. Terms such as industrial policy and industrial strategy have been expunged from official speeches and policy documents, yet industrial intervention remains widespread. In adopting this approach, the article argues that Sunak has returned the UK to an industrial policy consensus established under Thatcherism. This consensus places in the foreground pro-market rhetoric and policies suggesting that industrial strategy should be limited to the correction of market failure, while in the background the state actively intervenes to shape the structure of the economy by ‘picking winners’. In following this approach, Sunak has a legitimate claim to be the heir to Thatcher's legacy, although not in the manner that either its celebrants or critics believe.