PM May resurrects industrial policy, prepares for Brexit

May was to chair the first meeting of the “Cabinet Committee on Economy and Industrial Strategy” in Downing Street, bringing together the heads of 11 other ministries to set out her vision for a state-boosted industrial renaissance. 

“If we are to take advantages of the opportunities presented by Brexit, we need to have our whole economy firing,” May said ahead of the meeting in a statement released by her office. “We need a plan to drive growth up and down the country - from rural areas to our great cities.”

After a referendum campaign that revealed dissatisfaction in many of Britain’s struggling post-industrial regions, May is pitching a plan to reunite the country by raising the prospects of those who she casts as “hard-working people.” 

The June 23 vote to leave the European Union has raised serious questions about the future of the world’s fifth largest economy, with some surveys indicating a recession, a hit to consumer confidence and a possible fall in investment. 

“We need a proper industrial strategy that focuses on improving productivity, rewarding hard-working people with higher wages and creating more opportunities for the young so that, whatever their background, they go as far as their talents will take them,” May said. The challenge is to find a formula that arrests a decades-long decline in Britain’s manufacturing sector.