Abstract
This chapter will set out how, in three years of government, Prime Minister Theresa May and Philip Hammond delivered an economic policy agenda which was neither strong nor strategic, and failed to deliver either a substantial industrial strategy or the reform of capitalism. Furthermore, rather than taking power away from elites, May and Hammond’s economic policies failed to depart from austerity and did little or nothing to address May’s rhetorical commitment to fight against burning injustices and accord primacy to those who were just about managing. Indeed, no economic or industrial policy measures were implemented to reverse the trends of a decade which the then Governor of the Bank of England described in December 2016 as ‘the lost decade’.
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Lee, S. (2023). ‘An Economy That Works for Everyone’? An Evaluation of the May Government’s Economic Policies and Statecraft. In: Roe-Crines, A.S., Jeffery, D. (eds) Statecraft. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32472-7_7
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