Spanish PM Sanchez could teach Starmer a thing or two

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez visited Keir Starmer in Downing Street this week, the first bilateral meeting between arguably some of the only centre-left leaders remaining in Europe.

- CONOR FAULKNER

Formally, they were finalising Gibraltar’s long-awaited Brexit deal, but Starmer, fresh from reshuffling his stuttering government again this week, might have learned a thing or two from Sanchez.

That’s not to say that Sanchismo should be a manual. What, you may wonder, could Starmer learn from a leader caught up in corruption allegations and beholden to Catalan separatists? Unemployment rates remain high in Spain. Wages are low. A lack of intervention in the housing market has been the major failing of the Sanchez government. But consider the most pressing issues in Starmer’s in-tray: the economy, immigration, and a surging far right.

Where Britain dreams of growth, Spain has been the fastest-growing major economy in Europe - 3.2 per cent last year compared with Britain’s 1.1 per cent. Remarkably, The Economist crowned Spain the best-performing big economy in the world despite being governed by a left-wing coalition with Communist party members in the cabinet.