Boris Johnson is taking one heck of a risk by making labour shortages a deliberate part of his economic strategy. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom about the Prime Minister in the wake of party conference season.
If things go well, then businesses will raise productivity by investing heavily in new machinery and more training for home-grown workers who currently lack key skills. And then all will be fine for Johnson. But if things go badly, labour shortages will merely fuel rampant inflation, while gaps on shop shelves will become endemic. Key groups of voters will turn on the PM, hastening his demise.
I might have found this line of thinking persuasive myself had I not been a guest on Jeremy Vine’s morning television programme on Channel 5 after Johnson’s keynote speech last week.
During the phone-in section, two gentlemen in succession who defined themselves as ‘working class’ rang in to talk about it.
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