The Anna Karenina Principle, first popularised by science writer Jared Diamond in his 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel, takes its name from the opening line of Tolstoy’s novel: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” According to the principle, there is one path to success but many ways to fail. Success requires a harmonious combination of factors, while failure can arise from many different causes.

This is a problem with which the Conservative Party is familiar, having found numerous different ways to fail during its 14 years in power. Having long promised reduced immigration and increased housebuilding, these vows amounted to little more than the air that carried them. Many had hoped this was a Tory problem, rather than a systemic one. Keir Starmer has repeatedly stressed that his government’s main priority is growth. But a Labour announcement this week suggests that the party is unhappy, too, in its own way.

The Government has revealed that it plans to strengthen equality laws by establishing an equal pay regulatory and enforcement unit to end pay discrimination against ethnic minorities and disabled people. Spearheaded by Equalities Minister Seema Malhotra, this body would work with trade unions to improve the enforcement of equal pay rights and provide greater support for workers bringing forward complaints.

Campaigners have argued that existing protections under the Equality Act 2010 have failed to meaningfully reduce pay gaps, particularly in low-paid and outsourced roles, and that stronger enforcement is necessary. Malhotra framed the reforms as part of a broader “plan for change,” arguing that “equality is a key factor in delivering long-term and sustainable growth across the UK economy.”

For a government hell-bent on growth, state-enforced wage equality seems like an obvious disconnect. But the truth — as the electorate finally worked out with the Tories — is that stated preferences often don’t count for much. For all Starmer’s talk of growth, Labour has systematically failed to enact any growth measures. Nor will this newly-established quango, which is simply a way of advancing the goal of equality without cost to the Government, fiscal or political.

Creating a new quango is the essential building block of the Starmerite governing strategy, allowing ministers to further their ideological goals through arm’s-length control, while creating the illusion that policy is made by experts, insulating them from any backlash.

But this body also allows the Government to pursue the ultimate Left-wing goal of politics — equality — without bearing any fiscal costs itself. In this sleight of hand lies Labour’s real genius: with finances as tight as they are, the Government is outsourcing equality to the private sector, allowing it to claim victory on progressive issues without needing to confront the inconvenient realities of direct fiscal responsibility. Corporations are therefore yoked to serve Left-wing aims, while Labour avoids the political and economic fallout of direct invention. Starmer will then be able to obfuscate the costs to the wider economy by blaming previous governments.

But as clever as this con is, the Anna Karenina Principle still applies: failure can arise from many different causes. Without a genuine plan to deliver growth, the Government will stall on its own stated aims. As frustration with politics increases, it may not take 14 years for Labour to bear the same consequences as the Tories.

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Tom Jones writes at The Potemkin Village Idiot.

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