Annual Arthur Lewis Lecture with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner

We are honoured to welcome Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to deliver this year’s Annual Arthur Lewis Lecture titled “Shifting Power: The State’s Role in Social Progress“.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Arthur Lewis Lecture. Our series of annual lectures began in 2015 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of economist Arthur Lewis, who became Britain’s first black professor when he was appointed to a Chair at Manchester in 1948.

This event is part of the School of Social Sciences’ socially responsible initiatives.

Following the lecture, there will be a Q&A session featuring pre-submitted questions, followed by a drinks reception.

To submit a question, please email soss.externalrelations@manchester.ac.uk by Thursday 27 March.

More about the lecture content:

People, more than politicians, drive social progress: an enabling state shifts power so that citizens can play their full part in their futures and the future of the country.

It’s the theme that unites the Deputy Prime Minister’s policy agenda under this government’s Plan for Change. Devolution moves power and decision-making to Mayors, the Employment Bill empowers those in insecure work, and the Renters Bill and Commonhold reform give a stronger voice and rights to renters.

Economic growth – the defining mission for this government of service – will only be delivered when power is handed to those who can bring down waiting lists, keep streets safe, and run flourishing small and local businesses.

Ensuring everyone, in every part of the country, benefits from growth is a precondition of the social progress which Angela Rayner went into politics to deliver. This speech makes the progressive case for growth as a reflection of core social values and positions it in the historical context of previous governments shifting power to drive growth.