Jim O’Neill, the cross bench House of Lords peer who is chair of investment fund Northern Gritstone, told Bloomberg TV news on Monday that the leadership drama in the UK Labour government has almost become “some kind of game show.”
Asked if it was the right time to replace the Labour leader, O’Neill replied: “I mean, to some degree, like I have sort of joked about, it is almost like the country is in some kind of game show, where the tolerance of voters for whoever they give a chance to is extremely short …
” … and if there isn’t some miraculous solution within a few months, out they go and in comes somebody else …
“In my view we need people that are really gonna be more honest and open with the country and have bold leadership ideas and stick to them ….
“I don’t know when it’s gonna come … it could be out of this contest … that’s what we need and the country will respond to that instead of just being dragged around in this sort of strange, persistent, almost self-damaging game …
“On the leadership of Keir Starmer … the reality is he appears to have lost the support of his own party … and so within this game, people want change …
“If Andy (Burnham) does win Makerfield, then the momentum behind Andy to replace him (Starmer) will become huge … but whether he wins that (Makerfield) or not is obviously a huge issue.”
Asked if a potential Burnham “premiership” is a risk to fiscal discipline for the UK, O’Neill said: “… Andy’s allies, I think have gone out of their way to say that they would stick to the current fiscal rules …
“We need some clear ambition and focus … things that are really going to get us into sustained growth, but at the same time financial stability …
“I think what the markets were worrying about the last three days of last week is that we’d get an end to these fiscal rules and all sorts of promises to further spend government money but without any clear framework for how that would be keeping financial markets happy …
“The UK has got to get real … we have to have a proper framework … there are so many things that are chipping away at our finances … and luckily it seems as though Andy’s colleagues have got that message over the weekend …”
O’Neill is a former Goldman Sachs executive who has been one of the leaders of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.
Asked who is the right person for the UK Labour government leadership, O’Neill said: “The country needs somebody that’s got proper ideas and ones that can get the support of people.
“Nigel Farage appears to be doing that in his own — in my opinion slightly odd way — and indeed if the financial markets really start to believe he might be the next Prime Minister then they’ll be pretty upset to put it mildly in terms of bond markets as well …
“What Andy (Burnham) has inherited and taken to another level in Greater Manchester is very exciting. It’s the best economic story in this country, and Andy is sitting on top of it.
“So he can bring that energy and enthusiasm, but he’s got to have a proper framework for dealing with these other issues. And there are so many sacred cows, whether it be the triple lock on pensions, or misplaced welfare payments or the never ending rise in NHS spending, the inability to reform the housing market.
“All these things … any politician, whether it is Farage or anybody else, they are petrified of dealing with them …
“In my very strong opinion … dealing with some of those things would transform the view of investors about the UK and make people think that we can have sustained, positive growth again …
“Somebody is going to have the self belief and confidence to do that …”