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“Britain Heading For Calamity,” Says Conservative Peer

by Toby Young
30 March 2025 5:00 PM

Britain is “flirting with recession” and current economic policies are “catastrophic for growth”, Conservative peer Lord Moynihan said in a blistering attack on the Government’s economic policies. The Express has more.

Speaking in response to last week’s Spring statement, and at the launch of his new book – Return to Growth – Lord Moynihan accused the government of trying to use businesses as a “milk cow,” hiking taxes and increasing red tape. At the same time it has been dishing out “inflation-busting pay rises” to its public sector allies.

The British businessman and venture capitalist added: “Every policy led to the opposite of growth,” he said. “Last year’s budget was fairly punitive on business – we warned in the Lords that growth would be crushed.”

Last week the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted just 1% growth this year – half of its original figure but a projection Lord Moynihan says is still optimistic. “I think they’ll be proved wrong. It will be less. People are leaving for Dubai and other low-tax countries – not just bankers, but even hairdressers. This isn’t sustainable.”

In Return to Growth, Moynihan lays out what he calls the “three enemies of growth” – high government spending, excessive tax and regulation, and bureaucratic interference – all of which he says the Labour Government is embracing. “We’re moving towards central state control. History shows that this eventually ends in state violence. It’s deeply worrying.”

He calls instead for a return to the “three angels of growth” – free markets, free trade and sound money – to unleash innovation and rebuild prosperity. “We’ve become a nation addicted to regulation. The belief that government knows best stifles the creativity of the British people.”

Particularly scathing was his criticism of the new Employment Rights Bill, which grants new hires immediate workplace rights. “It’s catastrophic for business. Employers will hesitate to take on new staff. This won’t help workers – it’ll reduce jobs. I’m on the side of the working man.”

Lord Moynihan also blasted “moral panics” around net zero and diversity initiatives, claiming these have sparked “a huge spray of regulation” with little purpose. “What on earth is the question they’re even trying to answer?”

He concluded: “If we keep taxing and regulating like this, in four years’ time the damage will be catastrophic. We need to return to growth – urgently.”

Worth reading in full.

You can buy a copy of Return to Growth on Amazon.co.uk here. Highly recommended.

Tags: Lord MoynihanRachel ReevesRecessionReturn to GrowthSpring Statement

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17 Comments
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 month ago

Moynihan lays out what he calls the “three enemies of growth” – high government spending, excessive tax and regulation, and bureaucratic interference – all of which he says the Labour Government is embracing. “We’re moving towards central state control. History shows that this eventually ends in state violence. It’s deeply worrying.”

Bit like the Tories then…

21
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 month ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

The three enemies of growth are actually high government spending, high government spending, high government spending.

8
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 month ago
Reply to  soundofreason

I prefer Moynihan’s version.

2
0
TimGetti
TimGetti
1 month ago
Reply to  soundofreason

…. ie the Great Barrier Reeves…

4
0
JXB
JXB
1 month ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

The enemy is the welfare state… aggregate cost to date, £2.8 trillion in debt and rising.

1
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 month ago

Particularly scathing was his criticism of the new Employment Rights Bill, which grants new hires immediate workplace rights.

On the one memorable (and shameful) occasion I got a new recruitment badly wrong I (and the company) was able to get rid of the new hire sharpish. I am certain the new rules will mean that even more effort will be going into testing and pre-employment screening before hiring a new bod. In addition, I think management will seek a lot more personal contract ’employment’ with close attention to avoiding falling into de facto actual employment.

All of which will make companies and their employees poorer and consultants and lawyers richer.

11
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 month ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Yes that has been my experience too

2
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 month ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Be careful of the EU inspired concept of “worker” which is wider than employee and can include contractors and even agents.

3
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 month ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Not any of my concern these days. 🙂

2
0
Kent2305
Kent2305
1 month ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Since the government is a huge employer, we’ll be paying this crap in terms of either reduced productivity or worse, or public sector payoffs which are legendarily generous.

2
0
Art Simtotic
Art Simtotic
1 month ago

Amazingly, when you go to the supermarket the shelves are generally well-stocked; a modern car is generally reliable when regularly serviced; and a properly re-roofed house doesn’t generally leak.

All down to private-sector businesses being in competition with each other to provide a satisfactory level of service – beyond comprehension of a government sector with minimal collective business experience. Not for nothing did the Soviet Union collapse under the dead weight of state retail ownership.

Opportune to wheel out Ronald Reagan…

“…The nine most terrifying words in the English langauge are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Last edited 1 month ago by Art Simtotic
12
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 month ago
Reply to  Art Simtotic

I knew a proper old school socialist once. Not a dummy by any means. He once said to me “I believe in a planned economy; we don’t need 26 kinds of toaster”. Yeah, well, on my trips to the DDR you’d be lucky to see one kind of toaster, and that toaster would be a piece of crap.

10
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
1 month ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

On my trips behind the fallen Iron Curtain it was common to see derelict factories labelled VEB where their outdated products from the 40s and 50s no longer had a captive customer base so they closed down. What made it worse for the East is that everything they needed could be supplied from the West so there was no need to set up any factories there and by the same token all the army and air bases closed down as they were not needed.

1
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 month ago
Reply to  Gezza England

Ah yes, I remember seeing VEB stuff now.

I remember in the years following reunification, my relatives struggling to find work and needing to move to the ex BRD because a lot of the manufacturing that would have benefited from the lower wage costs in the ex DDR had already moved to the newer EU countries to the east.

1
0
daveholmes
daveholmes
1 month ago

Aside from high taxes and high wages, Labour seem to be deliberately copying Margaret Thatcher in shutting down industries; in her case coal and to some extent steel and manufacturing in general, in Labour’s case it’s oil, gas, steel and manufacturing (by taxing employment). I wonder what Labour supporters think about their party’s support for Thatcherite policies? At least Thatcher did it for economic reasons, Labour is doing it for ideological (and uneconomic) ones.

2
-1
Norfolk-Sceptic
Norfolk-Sceptic
1 month ago
Reply to  daveholmes

Margaret Thatcher put failed industries out of their misery.

And Labour closed down more mines than the Tories did, but the BBC wouldn’t notice that, would they?

3
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
1 month ago
Reply to  Norfolk-Sceptic

The communist unions and their archaic practices killed off their industries.

0
0

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