If Labour is to succeed in power, it must fix the Treasury

When David CameronEU resigned as prime minister in June 2016, hours after Britain voted to leave the , he said the country needed “fresh leadership”. What it would like now is a nice lie-down. Rishi Sunak is the fourth Conservative to hold the top job since the then Mr Cameron quit. Jeremy Hunt is the sixth chancellor. In the 30 years before the Brexit referendum, big cabinet reshuffles happened about once every two years; since then they have occurred once every six months on average. The latest, to sack Suella Braverman as home secretary and bring the newly ennobled , has triggered another bout of Tory infighting.The Labour Party has its own fractures, most obviously over the war in Gaza. But in the face of sustained Tory tumult, it pitches itself as stability incarnate. It is more than 20 points ahead in polls, with a general election likely to take place next year; Sir Keir Starmer, its leader, and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, promise to rebuild Britain. Yet those hoping that a new government with a big mandate would be enough to solve Britain’s problems are misguided. The country’s malaise goes deeper than the individuals in office. Productivity has risen by a feeble 1.7% since 2008; in the previous 16 years it rose by a hearty 27%. There are also problems with the way that the institutions of state are run. None of these is more powerful than the Treasury.