Economist Ravinder Athwal who worked in Keir Starmer’s team is poached from Flint Global.
Ravinder Athwal, the economist who wrote Labour’s 2024 manifesto, is taking on a senior role as an adviser to John Healey, in a move likely to fuel speculation about an early general election.
The chancellor is keen to beef up his team before the budget on 28 October, as the economy is buffeted by high oil prices and rising government borrowing costs.
Healey has poached Athwal to be his senior special adviser from the business advisory group Flint Global, before run by Andy Burnham’s chief of staff, the former Blair-era cabinet minister James Purnell.
Athwal, a Cambridge economics graduate, was closely associated with drawing up Labour’s manifesto, and devising Keir Starmer’s five “missions”, which were meant to shape Labour’s approach to government.
Suggestions at Westminster have been growing that Burnham’s team could consider a snap general election after a recent bounce in the polls.
As well as strengthening the snap election rumours, Athwal’s arrival at Healey’s side is likely to increase concerns among some in Labour that the Treasury’s instinctive caution is fuelling a “continuity Starmer” approach to economics.
The pledge at the heart of the manifesto not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT was seen by Starmer’s team as key to Labour’s landslide victory two years ago.
Healey has made clear that he does not intend to set a timetable for when the UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence at the budget, for example – a target he said, when he resigned from Starmer’s government in June, must be met by 2030.