Does Starmer really think quangos will boost economic growth?

If you wanted some ideas for how to boost economic growth, would you ask the people who run businesses or the quangos which regulate them? No prizes for guessing which of them Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds have plumped for. Yes, they really do seem to think that government regulators have some useful ideas for how to boost growth. They have written a jointly-signed letter to the heads of Ofwat, the Environment Agency, the Financial Conduct Authority and healthcare regulators asking them for advice as to how the government might lighten regulation and so make the country richer.

You might as well ask a bunch of turkeys what should be done about Christmas. The only answers the government is going to get are those which ensure that regulators get to keep their jobs. Any initiative to cut government regulation is going to send them into survival mode.