Why I joined 70 economists and human rights experts urging Labour to change course | Kate Pickett

Labour seems spellbound by the Tories' economically illiterate cult of austerity - but there is another way to help Britain thrive

• Kate Pickett is co-author of The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone

Fourteen years ago Richard Wilkinson and I published our book The Spirit Level. Arguably, the onset of the financial crash should have been an auspicious moment for our work to hit the bookshelves. Just as old economic certainties seemed to have been discarded, we were arguing for a new approach to macroeconomic policy focused on reducing inequality, improving human wellbeing and safeguarding the planet. There could be no better time for a reassessment of the values embedded in and outcomes expected from our economic system.

Of course, the coalition and subsequent Conservative governments chose a quite different path. Motivated by political ideology over and above economic literacy, they opted for swingeing cuts, punitive social security and tax policies engineered to benefit a wealthy minority. It has left our country poorer, weaker and more divided. Healthy life expectancy has fallen, child poverty rates have increased and inequality has grown - and the pain seems only to worsen.

Kate Pickett is professor of epidemiology at the University of York and co-author of The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone