Mariana Mazzucato, the star economist who inspired Starmer’s ‘missions’

Most people don’t know the name Mariana Mazzucato. Yet the economist is about to have a significant impact on their lives.

The University College London (UCL) professor’s flagship idea – a “mission-driven” government – ​​is set to be put into practice by Sir Keir Starmer after Labour’s landslide election victory.

The new prime minister has set out five “missions” in the areas of energy, health, crime, education and the economy. Achieving the goals in each area will be at the heart of his new government.

Starmer was inspired by Mazzucato, a left-wing academic who has spent the last decade championing this “mission”-driven approach through lectures, numerous articles and four books – with a fifth in the pipeline.

She believes governments should draw on the spirit of the Apollo programme – in which the US space agency NASA mobilised the private sector to put a man on the Moon – to tackle the biggest problems of the day.

That means a more muscular state, ready to intervene in a multitude of industries, an approach that remains controversial among many of Mazzucato’s peers.

A mission-driven philosophy

Nevertheless, Labour has enthusiastically embraced her mission-driven philosophy. Starmer met Mazzucato as early as February 2021, at UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, which she founded.

“He came over and said, ‘I love your ideas and I want to talk to you,’” Mazzucato recalls. “So I sat down with him for two hours and we talked about all these things, just the two of us.”

Two years later, Starmer called a major press conference in Manchester and announced his plan to “transform the way Britain does business, from top to bottom” using Mazzucato’s concept of “mission-driven government”.

“We will modernize the central government, so that it becomes dynamic, agile, strong and, above all, focused,” he told a gathered audience.

The most notable expressions of this new approach so far are the Labour Party’s proposals to create a Great British Energy and a National Wealth Fund.

How does it feel to see your ideas defended by the Prime Minister?

Mazzucato, who speaks with a rapid, effervescent cadence, is not yet satisfied. She believes that Starmer has not yet fully understood how to put her ideas into practice, even though he has enthusiastically adopted her language.

“They use the concept of missions. But… that’s not what I mean. The NHS is not a mission. Growth is not a mission, is it?

“I’m glad they’ve taken that approach and I think these measures can become real missions that will change the way government works. But if they don’t – if they’re just old wine in new bottles – and it comes down to, at best, more money for the NHS, more police on the streets, a few patchy policies here and there that don’t really transform the economy, then it’s not going to work.”