‘Commanding heights of the economy’: the postwar blueprint that inspires Burnham

A prime minister with ambitious plans for state ownership. Private companies that put profits before investment. A country struggling with onerous debts. The UK in 2026 with a new prime minister weighing up how and what price public utilities can be nationalised? No, this was Clement Attlee’s government in 1945, committed to taking over the commanding heights of the economy at a time when the country was on its uppers. History shows Andy Burnham would not be the first Labour politician to have plans to nationalise parts of the economy. Nor would he be alone in trying to do so at a time when the public finances are under pressure. The man certain to succeed Sir Keir Starmer thinks – as Attlee did – that state ownership forms part of the solution to Britain’s economic woes. He will have to go some to match the record of the postwar Labour administration. By 1951, Attlee’s government had nationalised 20% of the economy, as well as creating the NHS. In the 1970s, nationalisations were often emergency rescues of companies – such as Rolls-Royce and British Leyland – or sectors such as shipbuilding deemed too big to fail; in the 1940s they formed part of a plan to transform the workings of the economy. The Labour party had long argued for nationalisation. …