Given this Government’s poor polling, it’s hardly a surprise that entrepreneurs are suddenly interested in engaging with His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. This week we held a couple of roundtables as part of Labour’s Startup Review and to be frank, everyone in attendance assumed Labour is now the government in waiting.
Of course, Labour supporters (or those that just want a change) shouldn’t be adding up their poultry any time soon, but more importantly, we shouldn’t be unambitious for the next two years.
There are limits on what can be achieved – particularly in a polycrisis. The Tories can’t even keep Matt Hancock from 'the jungle' to “deliver important messages to the masses” and/or bag £400,000 and/or gamble on rebuilding his public reputation. As James Forsyth writes in The Times (paywall): “he has taken the view that if he is not at the top table, he may as well do his own thing, even if he loses the whip. This shows how unbiddable former ministers can be and there are now dozens of them on the Tory benches.”
Forsyth is a Tory insider who knows which way the wind is blowing. It’s telling that in the same article he thinks education is an area where the party can make a difference. He’s particularly optimistic about Gillian Keegan, the new Secretary of State for Education and first degree-level apprentice to enter parliament. Beyond school, college and university, Forsyth thinks Sunak will also focus on in-work training: ”He has long bemoaned the fact that British employers spend barely half the European average on training their workers.”
It’s ironic that such a potentially short premiership may focus on a policy area that even if executed impeccably would take years to pay off. It’s also one that has suffered from so much chopping and changing that if you were to ask anyone in the education sector their top priority it would likely be for stability.
Nevertheless, as The Times Education Commission findings show (only partially paywalled), we can, and must, do better. For our part, we think there are tweaks to support the entrepreneurial instincts and ambitions of young people. As we argued in our latest All-Party Parliamentary Group report, entrepreneurship education in schools is not currently integrated into the curriculum and England, unlike many other European economies, lacks a specific entrepreneurship education strategy.
On adult skills, one simple shift would be allowing the self-employed to benefit from the same tax breaks for training as employees. While all employer-funded work-related training is tax-deductible, the self-employed can only benefit from tax breaks for training directly related to their current work. This is something we explore further in a forthcoming report with Enterprise Nation, who, relatedly, are looking for volunteer mentors to support the Government’s Help to Grow: Management scheme.
In the book Thatcher and Sons, Simon Jenkins's convincing thesis is that there was a lot more continuity between Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown than many of the party faithful would care to admit. However long Sunak remains in power (well, perhaps not if it’s just 38 days), he has the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy. He’ll need to be a lot more ambitious than just focusing on education, but our six reports on the topic – and another two on the way – prove there are policy ideas ready and waiting for him.
The Time is Now
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