How Britain became hostage to crony capitalism

‘You are neither dealing fairly by the farmer, nor yet by the country at large.’ – so thundered Richard Cobden to the House of Commons in 1843. He was objecting to Britain’s infamous Corn Laws: tariffs which protected the income of wealthy landowners by jacking up the price of imported grain. Yet Cobden could just as easily be describing Britain’s economic policy today.

In 1846, Britain killed off the Corn Laws for good. The repeal of these costly tariffs is rightly celebrated as a great victory for free trade. It was also a milestone for the wider cause of economic liberty: a moment when consumers triumphed over cronyism, markets over monopolies and freedom over political connections.

Nearly two centuries later, the same elitist urge to rig markets has returned. Now, the state is after much more than corn. Our new Corn Laws come in the form not just of tariffs, but subsidies, pensions, corporate bailouts, green handouts, bloated welfare states and many more. These policies claim to protect jobs, the planet and the poor, but always result in the same thing: a rigged economy that punishes innovation and traps people in dependency.

In 1839, Cobden, along with John Bright, formed the Anti-Corn Law League and built a popular movement that successfully upended the broken status quo in just seven years. It is time to learn from their example. We must stop playing defence. Instead, it is time to name and shame the new Corn Laws and oppose them with the same moral clarity and economic realism that brought victory two centuries ago. 

The advocates of the old Corn Laws claimed the scheme was in the national interest, but the truth was very different. By raising food prices to protect the landed class, the Corn Laws hurt consumers, especially the working poor, and held back industrial innovation. Cobden and Bright’s Anti-Corn Law League exposed this hypocrisy, and rightfully won, by combining economic truth with political outrage. The lesson is that markets don’t just win on efficiency. They win when people see and understand protectionism for what it is – a tool of the powerful, exploiting the powerless. 

That same rigged logic now drives 21st-century British policy. Tariffs are back in fashion, wrapped in the flags of populism, Brexit and industrial policy. The Government hides behind justifications such as ‘strategic autonomy’, ‘food security’, ‘protecting Britain’ and ‘taking back control’.

In reality, those slogans deliver higher prices, lower quality and less choice in the market. Consumers (especially the poor) foot the bill. Politically connected sectors are protected, while everyone else is left to struggle.

For example, one justification of Brexit was that it would protect British farmers and fishers, so that the consumer would have access to better and cheaper British-grown food. Instead, the Brexit-era import controls only led to the protection of an inefficient farming sector – a negative impact which has also been felt in the steel sector. Just like the Corn Laws, the state – not the market – suddenly has the power of picking winners. And it is not on your side. 

Unfortunately for British consumers, tariffs are only half of the story; subsidies are the more insidious form of protectionism. Agricultural handouts, green energy grants, defence industry contracts and innovation ‘challenges’ are all instances where government actively chooses the winner of the market. These policies pretend to support the public interest. But in reality, they act as a disguised form of corporate welfare. Multi-billion-pound Net Zero transition funding flows to major consultancies and certain firms that align with the Government politically. HS2 and ‘levelling up’ channel public money into prestige projects with little evidence of value, or regard to the impact on the market or consumers. Just like the Corn Laws, policy is written by and for the powerful, not the public.

Today’s protectionist measures don’t just protect firms from competition – they also wall individuals off from economic reality. Universal Credit expansions, unaffordable and unrealistic pension plans and tax credits shield people from labour market pressures. This further disincentivises work, thrift, innovation and risk-taking, which are essential components of a growing market.

All these market-distorting interventions have led inevitably to the current state of Britain, where state dependency can be inescapable, even as the marginal tax rate for the poor exceeds 60%. The cases above shouldn’t be seen simply as social policies: they are anti-market insulation schemes, turning voters into clients of the state. As with tariffs and subsidies, government protects select groups from market discipline – and punishes everyone else.

The defenders of capitalism have been too cautious and too technocratic in confronting modern interventionism, which has led to the revival of a new generation of Corn Laws. The original Corn Laws weren’t beaten by polite arguments – victory was only achievable by moral conviction, political courage and economic reality. Today’s Corn Laws – tariffs, corporate bailouts and welfare excess – demand the same from us. The fight may have expanded far beyond the price of bread, but the debate is still about freedom versus favours and liberty versus lobbying. The responsibility falls to us to call out and overturn the new Corn Laws in all their forms.

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