Chris Curtis to quit as chair of Labour Growth Group

Chris Curtis has announced his departure as chair of the Labour Growth Group, amid questions about the caucus’ future.

The MP for Milton Keynes is understood to be keen to focus on other work, including devolution and housing, as the group’s current funding comes to an end.

The group, founded shortly after Labour’s landslide election victory in July 2024, had a focus on “unlocking Britain’s untapped potential” and delivering on the party’s manifesto commitments on reforming planning policy and building 1.5 million new homes.

The news comes just weeks after the group published its first report, An Honest Day, outlining a “new economic settlement for Britain”.

In a statement, Curtis said: “I’m enormously proud of what we’ve built together. From a group of MPs determined to put economic growth at the centre of Labour’s argument, to one of the most influential voices on the party’s economic direction.

“We won tremendous victories on issues like expanding the envelope on planning reform, pushing major fiscal devolution, driving the call for unleashing a new generation of nuclear power, unlocking greater investment in British defence and more.

“The recent publication of An Honest Day was the crowning achievement, a serious blueprint for the new economic settlement Britain needs, grounded in the conviction that growth has meant something for working people, in every part of the country. That we must remake the state to ensure it can shape where an honest day pays again.

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“LGG is now moving into its next phase, with colleagues taking the work forward in fresh directions. I’m certain it will continue to play an important part in shaping Labour’s economic argument in the years ahead. Growth matters even more now than when we set the group up, and the case for it has only got stronger.”

LabourList understands that several MPs affiliated with the group were aggrieved by the publication of LGG’s report happening without their getting sight of it in advance, as well as Curtis’ call for Starmer’s resignation.

Political website Guido Fawkes, citing a letter from group director Mark McVitie, claims that the group is on its “deathbed”.

In the letter, McVitie said: “You may know that the current funding block which has sustained LGG operations is coming to an end. Chris (Curtis) has given a huge amount to LGG as parliamentary chair and is now keen to focus on other work, including advocacy on housing and on devolution and the metro mayoralties around the country.

“For my part, I am keen to focus my energy on taking the ideas in An Honest Day forward through new routes. With that, Chris will soon be standing down as chair and I will be winding things down behind the scenes.”

McVitie encouraged those interested in taking on leadership of the group to step forward in order to “create a process for an orderly handover and a timetable for moving into a new phase”.

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