In an interview with the Observer published today, Alan Johnson has voiced criticisms of the coalition’s economic policies from his new role as shadow chancellor. He said the proposed 25 per cent spending cuts could “fundamentally alter our community” and were going to “cause huge harm to our public services”.
The appointment of Johnson to the job of shadow chancellor has led to some questioning his expertise, especially compared to the other obvious choices for the position, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper. In the interview, Johnson tackles the doubters head on:
“You don’t need to be a professor of economics to be a Treasury minister… I will do this job the way I have done other jobs. I would not pretend to be the greatest gift to the cabinet but I have done five cabinet jobs and I have done them OK… It is about getting up to speed very quickly and it is about listening to people. Particularly in this brief it is more about listening to people than reading up. I am not going to do an economics degree in the next few months.”
It is a characteristically self-deprecating assessment of his career. Some might think, however, that reading up is exactly what he should be doing, but as my colleague Mehdi Hasan pointed out yesterday, Johnson’s personability, humour and background (especially in contrast to his privileged opponent on the Conservative front bench) will give him a particular strength and appeal. Johnson comes across in person and in politics as normal, human and humble – qualities you might argue are sometimes lacking in the Chancellor himself. Whether he should go on referring to his lack of learning in economics is, however, questionable. He might not be planning to do an economics degree, but he has very little time before the spending review to steel himself for the fight, and against the inevitable accusations of economic ignorance.
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