McDonnell hails Labour's anti-austerity expert panel

28 Sep 15

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has announced the creation of an economic advisory committee to help the Labour Party develop its anti-austerity public spending and taxation plans.

The panel, which includes Nobel Prize winner for economics Joseph Stiglitz, former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member David Blanchflower and high-profile economist Thomas Piketty, will help develop a strategy based on investment in skills, jobs and infrastructure, McDonnell said.

Ahead of his speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton today, he stated: “I am delighted to convene this economic advisory committee that will assist in developing a radical but pragmatic and deliverable economic policy for our country.

“Our economic advisory committee will assist in developing a fairer and more prosperous economic alternative based upon investment and growth which reaches all sections of society. Austerity is failing the people of this country. Working alongside world leading economists Labour will present the coherent alternative our country desperately needs.”

The committee will meet every three months to discuss and develop economic policy ideas under the new leadership.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: “I was elected on a clear mandate to oppose austerity and to set out an economic strategy based on investment in skills, jobs and infrastructure. Our economy must deliver security for all, not just riches for a few.

“I am delighted that John McDonnell as shadow chancellor has convened this group to advise the leadership as we set out our economic vision.”


The full membership of the committee is:

Mariana Mazzucato, Professor, University of Sussex

Joseph Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics.

Thomas Piketty, Professor, Paris School of Economics

Anastasia Nesvetailova, Professor, City University London

David Blanchflower, Bruce V, Rauner Professor of Economics Dartmouth and Stirling, Ex-member of the Monetary Policy Committee

Ann Pettiffor, Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME)

Simon Wren-Lewis, Professor of Economic Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

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