One of the few significant domestic policies to have flourished under Theresa May, with Brexit driving out almost everything else, has been industrial strategy. But will industrial strategy survive a change in the leadership of the Conservative party? And does it deserve to?
It is dogged by the assumption that it rests on a left-wing blind faith in government. Government might try to pick winners but ends up bailing out losers like British Leyland. That is why after the 2015 election, when Sajid Javid became business secretary, he spent eighteen months trying to dismantle it.
After the demise of British Leyland, Margaret Thatcher put enormous effort into attracting Japanese car companies to the North East,– helped of course by her initiatives in creating the European