Leader or people pleaser?

Plus: AI competition from China, and what Westminster gets wrong about startups

Sep 02, 2026

Can Burnham break the triple lock? The Prime Minister’s former adviser, Jim O’Neill, has warned that calming the bond markets – which continued to push up the cost of government borrowing today – will require tackling excesses like welfare spending and the triple lock on pensions. No wonder O’Neill didn’t end up taking a Government job.

Burnham also faced Kemi Badenoch at PMQs today, where she challenged him on his fondness for saying yes to more spending and warned that ‘a PM needs to be a leader, not a people pleaser’ – something even his supporters are starting to see as a weak spot.

I spoke with the economist Julian Jessop for this week’s edition of The Capitalist about what Burnham’s analysis gets wrong, why politicians can’t be trusted to make long-term decisions and what would actually get Britain growing again.

Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.

Marc Sidwell
Editor, CapX

Today’s Takes

Fresh thinking from CapX

Don’t hand China the future of AI

Damian Green

‘The nations whose standards the world adopts win far more than the nations that merely rent their software by the month.’

The UK used to allow proprietary technology to compete alongside its open alternatives. As we enter the age of AI, our Government seems unsure how to deal with open-source models. But investing in open-source projects with the Americans is essential if we want to stay ahead of China. Openness helped put the internet in every pocket. We need to set AI free in the same way. Read More

Burnham’s statism will lead to more misery

Emma Munday

‘Everyday Britons are not being bled dry by a greedy rentier class. There are simply too few gains to divide.’

Andy Burnham entered Downing Street laying the blame for Britain's economic stagnation at the feet of ‘40 years of neoliberalism’. But progressive policies are the real reason our economic growth has stagnated. Just look at the US, where a wide range of households have become much richer than their British counterparts thanks to a more supply-side approach. Read More

The Capitalist: Burnham’s growth plan won’t work

Will the man who paints himself as the antidote to Thatcherism lead us back to the worst of the 1970s? This week on The Capitalist, as Britain’s borrowing costs spiked and Andy Burnham faced MPs as Prime Minister, I spoke to the economist Julian Jessop about Burnham’s plans – and whether they can really get Britain back to growth.

We discussed whether nationalisation is a recipe for reducing the cost of living, and Burnham’s curious belief that Britain’s current condition – with taxes at record levels and the state bigger than ever – can be labelled a failed experiment in neoliberalism.

Best of the Web

Westminster is stifling startups

Ryan Bourne, The Times 🔒

‘Westminster has nothing resembling the entrepreneurial representation found in American state legislatures.’

Britain’s most politically neglected businesses are the ones that never become large enough to lobby a minister. Such entrepreneurial upstarts get crushed by regulation that favours established firms. Evidence from the US suggests that one way to fix this would be to have more entrepreneurs in Parliament. The trouble is, we hardly have any. Read More

This is how to fix regional inequality

Paul Ormerod, City AM

‘Blanket spending on the regions does very little to narrow the economic gap between them, as the last 60 years demonstrates.’

Concern over regional inequality is nothing new. Andy Burnham’s ‘prosperity in every postcode’ is not so different from the Conservative desire for ‘Levelling Up’, and Harold Wilson worried about the same issue in the 1960s. Billions have been spent since, to little effect. To make a difference, we need to address the root issue: low productivity. Read More