There is a well known list of what the first Labour MPs in 1906 were reading. There is of course no Marx but Charles Dickens, William Morris and Henry George featured
There is now a list of books donated to the Downing St library by MPs who have stood down from the Cabinet following the departure of Keir Starmer.
Starmer himself donated a copy of Tom Baldwin’s biography of Starmer…The former PM was clearly not well red.
Other books on the list are more interesting and perhaps particularly Jo Stevens donation of the Fed, an important labour history book.
- Former Chancellor Rachel Reeves added her own book, Alice in Westminster: The political life of Alice Bacon
- Darren Jones, who served as a senior minister between 2024 and 2026, gave Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home – a book by Pope Francis which calls for greater protection of the environment
- Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy offered her book All In: How we build a country that works
- Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister in the last government, also chose his own book – a biography of former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson
- Women and Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson picked Choose Freedom: The Future for Democratic Socialism by former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley
- Former Wales Secretary Jo Stevens gave The Fed: a history of the South Wales miners in the twentieth century by Hywel Francis and Davis Smith
- Treasury minister James Murray donated Instruction to Deliver – a book by Sir Michael Barber about his experience being a civil servant in Tony Blair’s government
“The former PM was clearly not well red.”
So much is going on in there…
Henry George did NOT believe in land nationalisation. He wasn’t a socialist. His great work Progress and Poverty advocated Land Value Tax, which at a 100% rate nationalises the rent of land (unearned income, like Marx considered, in addition, the return to the owners of capital). Both capitalists and landowners extract surplus labour. Land Value Tax was the first economic policy of the Labour Representation Committee/Labour Party. It was John McDonnell’s policy as Shadow Chancellor. The http://www.labourland.org campaigns for Land Value Tax. Both John and Andy Burnham are members.