Simon French

Simon French is chief economist and head of research at Panmure Liberum, as well as a Times columnist. He spent 12 years as an economic adviser in the civil service.

What’s the Treasury’s real view on immigration?

This week has seen much talk – again – of the ‘Treasury View’, and how that rarely defined set of values might be influencing this government’s approach to migration. First, let’s kill off some conspiracy theories that exist about the Treasury View. In general terms the Treasury View stands for cautious conservatism (with a small