John Van Reenen believes he can help Labour solve the ‘peculiar British problem’ of chronically weak productivity

The economist John Van Reenen lacks the public status of Gordon Brown’s “two Eds” – Balls and Miliband – who ranged across Whitehall in New Labour’s first term, enforcing the Treasury’s will.But ask today’s Labour apparatchiks about Rachel Reeves’s approach to growth, which she will set out in a speech later this month, and they often point to the chair of her council of economic advisers.

Currently on leave from the London School of Economics (LSE), where he ran the Centre for Economic Performance, Van Reenen has spent his professional lifetime probing the weak spots of the UK’s economy.