WHETHER you think Sir Keir Starmer should stay or go, it is clear the proverbial dam has burst and that there is no going back. It was not my preferred, but it’s important that colleagues and I are honest with our constituents as to the reality of where we are today.

When the inevitable leadership contest comes, it will provide Labour the opportunity to have short, sharp “battle of ideas” - as the former Health Secretary Wes Streeting described it. This battle will be much less about whether we deliver on our manifesto, and much more about how. And, in this “battle”, I will be firmly advocating for a country-wide version of “Manchesterism” — where a powerful, compassionate and commercially-minded state serves our communities as an investor and coordinator of key projects requiring master planning, rather than hoping that disjointed private investors will solve all our problems.

The idea is twofold; first, British capitalism has a coordination problem, and, to solve the economic problems and rebuild the industries we need to, the state is the only player able to co-ordinate investment – and co-invest – in capital intensive growth industries such as clean energy, advanced manufacturing and next-generation infrastructure.

Second, only the state can remove blockages to delivery, such as regulators or legislation. As co-investor, the state has skin in the game, and would be incentivised to remove these blockages and encouraging private capital who can be reassured the state has a vested interest in the project succeeding. Additionally, it’ll help rebuild our diminished public wealth – something the state as grant-maker-extraordinaire couldn’t ever do. As we’ve seen with the Kernow Industrial Growth Fund (KGIF), there’s an alternate economic model that can deliver for Cornwall.

But what would the state as investor-coordinator, look like for Cornwall? Devolution allowed Greater Manchester to invest into commercial property, homes, and businesses, delivering almost 10,000 new homes, creating a similar number of jobs, and redeveloping brownfield land into a thriving commercial and community spaces. Public money invested for the public benefit, growing the economy whilst delivering goods we need, such as affordable housing. At the same time, it saw transport brought back into public ownership, in the form of a cheap, reliable, high-quality bus network.

In Cornwall, it could take the form of a boosted KGIF, delivering public investment, in partnership with the private sector, to revitalise our key industries, such as the critical minerals sector, and improving local businesses in our visitor economy.

We desperately need truly affordable and social homes in Cornwall, and we could get them delivered with the partnership of Homes England.

Reimagining the state as an investor offers a future where the state works hand in glove with the private sector to deliver not only economic growth, but public benefits too, whilst allowing the Government to manage the important things that can’t be managed by the private sector, such as housing and water. A partnership that would benefit the country as a whole.