Rethink the manifesto

Labour made promises, but times have changed

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Labour and the Conservatives both go into their party conferences with big doubts about their leaders. Keir Starmer's MPs see him as becalmed. Kemi Badenoch's see her as beyond rescue. It will make for a fortnight of speculation at the end of which little will have changed. But a debate that needs to happen is whether Labour sticks or moves on its manifesto.

It's easy to say the party is damned either way. If it tries to rewrite its pledges on VAT, income tax and public spending, it becomes a party that breaks promises. If it keeps those promises it risks building inefficiency into the tax system, swelling the size of the state and destroying what trust Labour has built up as a steward of the economy. Either way, it spells defeat in 2029.