This is the first post of my new Substack based on the theme of changing the story. In my career in politics and education this has been the constant backdrop. As a political strategist under Tony Blair I helped achieve the shift from old to New Labour. As a headteacher I helped shift schools from exam factories to educating the whole child - head, heart and hand. I have always combined thinking with doing, trying to shape new arguments and new approaches that liberate people to achieve more than they thought possible. I will be writing regularly about politics, education, strategy and human potential, among other things.
This autumn, the Labour government needs to change the story fundamentally. Change its mindset, its way of communicating and its sense of urgency.
In this post, I touch on five ways it could start to do this. In future posts I will elaborate on some of these themes.
1. Reconnect to Labour’s core purpose
After a difficult first year, with many MPs and Labour supporters going on holiday fatalistic about the future, the key task this autumn is for the government to reignite a belief that there is a big, progressive project that is worth fighting for.
The so-called centre ground of politics is not static. It moves depending on which ideas are taking hold. That consensus can be built around the beliefs of the Right or the Left. The point of any Labour government is to move the centre of gravity to the Left. This may be an obvious statement but it is not currently how things are seen. To achieve this requires a combination of ideas, policies and arguments that shift the debate in progressive directions: tackling inequality, giving working people a fairer deal, breaking down the barriers to opportunity, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.
The best way of judging whether this is working is analysing what right wing opponents need to do in order to win back power. In 2010, after 13 years of a Labour government, the Tories under Cameron and Osborne had to agree to two Labour approaches, above all, to be credible: a publicly funded, free-at-the-point-of-use health service and a liberal attitude to personal lifestyles, including gay rights. That was because on both issues Labour had won the argument.
Today Labour needs the confidence to articulate its driving purpose and the radical reforms to achieve it. It needs to show how workers’ rights, rail nationalisation, reform of the NHS, a rise in living wage, investment in new infrastructure, reform of the state, add up to a fundamental change in the balance of power in this country towards working people. This has to start now and build to May next year. Without it, there will be few compelling reasons to vote Labour in vital elections.
2. Reposition Starmer as the opportunity Prime Minister - not the security one
It’s not enough for Labour to show more confidence about its programme. Starmer will have to change his approach to regain the initiative.
Starmer is an ‘opportunity’ Prime Minister forced to become a ‘security’ one. And that’s why the government’s narrative is seen by some to be elusive.
Let me explain.
You only have to watch Starmer engaging with young people involved in Lewis Hamilton’s charity to see his passion for aspiration and opportunity. Or hear him talk about his brother’s difficulty learning to see how much he cares about treating everyone with dignity.
In opposition, it was the same. Those in the audience for his opportunity mission speech came away saying: “This is his story. This is Keir at his best.”
People have taken to asking: ‘what is Starmer’s irreducible core?” It is a question I remember that was thrown at Blair at a similar point. With all the rough edges and compromises of government, people want to know what the Prime Minister really believes in his heart.
Starmer’s irreducible core was there for all to see in that opportunity speech:
“To fight – at every stage, for every child – the pernicious idea that ba,ckground equals destiny. That your circumstances, who you are, where you come from, who you know, might shape your life more than your talent, your effort and your enterprise. Breaking that link, that’s what Labour is for. I’ve always felt that and it runs very deep for me. So, I promise you this: whatever the obstacles to opportunity, wherever the barriers to hope, my Labour Government will tear them down. We will break the link between where you start in life and where you end up. The two fundamental questions we must now ask: are we keeping pace with the future, preparing all our children to face it? And – are we prepared to confront the toxic divides that maintain the class ceiling?”
This is the animating idea that the government has found so elusive. It is the authentic Starmer, and authenticity matters more than ever to a cynical public.
Privately, I saw him most animated when he was talking about looking people in the eye in Grimsby or Burnley (or one of the many towns needing a boost) and knowing that a Labour government had helped them to change their lives for the better.
But there have been few moments when this has been on show in the last few months. Instead, the security Prime Minister has taken hold. Understandable in part. The world is insecure, more so with Trump in the White House. Defence is now a big issue; borders and boats remain the key driver of rising support for populism and are obviously dominating the political agenda at the moment. Cost of living pressures still blight too many lives.
But a message solely focused on security will never be sufficient either to inspire or to provide the momentum that a government needs. It plays into fear, when people crave hope. It plays defence when Labour needs to go on the offensive. It promises the impossible, for real security in a world of chaotic change, is never going to be fully delivered. Security is a foundation. But it is not enough.
The excuse often given for this downbeat message, is that ‘we’ve got to meet voters where they are at.’ The implication being that a message that is more hopeful will appear tin-eared to people’s current struggles – a fantastical glimpse into an unattainable future. But that is to misread, for example, Trump’s victory. His multiracial, working-class coalition was built largely on aspiration and hope. True, there was a tough security message about the border. But the hundreds of Trump supporters I spoke to before the election, all believed that he was offering a way forward for their families – that to Make America Great Again, was also to make their families thrive again. However difficult people’s current situation, everyone needs light at the end of the tunnel. In an age of insecurity, the fightback comes from opportunity.
And it’s opportunity that ultimately beats Reform, because a party so wedded to the past, will never successfully compete for the future. Yes, Labour has to neutralise the boats issue, but it will ultimately get the edge over Farage not on this territory but offering an aspirational future in which people feel they have real prospects of a better life.
An opportunity framing gives the government’s programme real potency – and makes good on its mandate to be the party of change.
But only if there is radical reform that disrupts the status quo and removes the barriers to opportunity.
That is why curriculum and assessment reform is so crucial to prepare young people properly for the future. It is why the government must return to welfare reform and redesign the system to extend opportunity and give people the dignity of a decent job. It is why reforming the state - devolving power, harnessing technology, joining up government – must not be done for its own sake, but for a single-minded purpose, to unlock fresh opportunities in every part of the country.
And crucially the investment announced in the spending review now needs to be accompanied by a people strategy – the people who will build the infrastructure as well as those who will benefit from it. Education and skills remains the missing piece in the government’s strategy for growth and national renewal.
Starmer cares about opportunity. He embodies working class aspiration. His life is testimony to the belief that hard work should be rewarded. Now is a good time for him to break free from an overly-scripted security message that stifles his true calling.
His opportunity is to show day in day out that the purpose of his premiership is to fight for the aspirations of working people across Britain. Never flinching from tearing down the barriers that get in the way.
3. Think of boats and hotels as if it was the Covid Vaccine Taskforce
If boats and hotels are taken off the table, the oxygen goes from Reform, and there can be a more rational debate about immigration. Labour has got to stop believing that the painfully slow grind of the Home Office, overly cautious lawyers, and traditional diplomacy is going to do the job.
Yes, there has been some progress. But the issue needs to be gripped with the urgency of a national emergency. As the Danish government has shown, effective action is the only and best way of neutralising it. The Covid Vaccine Taskforce is a good model: a crack, multidisciplinary team with the resources, the tools and the political backing to do whatever it takes. Most of all a team that is backed to take risks, to cut through the inertia and get the job done.
Gripping this will mean creating an effective operation completely separate from the Home Office, and a better deal with France. It will mean arguing for and building a national consensus behind key principles. Eg a) Britain should take its fair share of asylum seekers through orderly, legal routes b) Coming on a small boat will never lead to a successful asylum claim c) Hotels should never house asylum seekers - proper reception centres should house them, so they are not dispersed across the country d) Speed matters - processing claims and then acting on the results must take days not months or years e) We should know who is coming and going from our country so digital identity cards should be introduced immediately.
4. Focus on long-term strategy not just short term tactics.
There will always be urgent crises to grip, like boats. But that does not mean this government should be short term, hand to mouth, like the last one.
At the last election, and after 14 years in power, the Tories had no story to tell about what they had achieved in government. That’s because it was fixated with media headlines not real impact. Starmer framed his leadership as an ‘end to sticking plaster politics’ and this should guide the government’s approach to making lasting change. The best route to success at the next election is to build up a record of real accomplishments. That won’t be sufficient but it will be the foundation for re-election.
To achieve this requires the infrastructure of strategy to be working smoothly.
Number 10 needs the structures and meetings to force joined up, medium and long term thinking.
For example, there should be proper time to discuss the big political strategy questions of the coming year.
How does Starmer’s Conference speech and Reeve’s Budget come together in one powerful argument about Britain’s future?
How does Labour move the economic narrative from one solely about black holes to a story about the new type of economy being built and a dynamic approach to growth and raising living standards?
How does Starmer regain personal momentum, show strength and reverse his poll numbers?
What is the nine month strategy for winning the May elections, particularly in Scotland and Wales?
Note: None of these big questions obsess about Reform. The key is for Labour to get its own strategy, policy and communications working better in the coming months rather than being pushed onto the back foot by the latest antics of Farage.
5. Take more risks with communication
Given Starmer and the Labour Party’s poll ratings, Labour needs to start communicating in different ways.
The current problems include:
Too much reactive comms and not enough strategic comms
Too much legacy media and not enough digital media (young people think the PM is invisible on social media - the reality is that he appears, but he’s not saying anything that is memorable enough for young people - or anyone else - to clock it)
Too little attempt to win big arguments eg too little explanation of the rationale for welfare changes
Too few occasions when the PM is seen to be engaging in real debates with the public where he is properly challenged.
Too many one off events, announcements and not clusters of interventions that reinforce each other
In the attention economy, the Prime Minister has the advantage of power and a lot of control over the agenda, and the disadvantage that he is not a small insurgent opposition party - like Reform - that can say whatever it likes.
Labour needs to use its governing power to spark debates and arguments on its own terms; lifting the lid on its thinking and engaging the public in a national conversation about the issues that matter most.
I will be writing more on these themes in the weeks to come.
By Christmas, people need to look back at this period as the time when a pugnacious Opportunity Prime Minister was putting forward radical long term changes on education, welfare and the state - and tackling the boats crisis - in a way that starts to bring back some optimism to the country.
In short, a government that has changed the story, with the outlines of a New Britain emerging and a widely held belief that there’s a credible roadmap for getting there.
This is an invaluable contribution, and I hope it will be widely shared in SW1.
The fundamental problem is that this government is appalling at communicating the "why". There is no sense of any big picture thinking. What is the objective that all policy should support? You cant sell anything negative (higher tax etc) unless people understand the end game. There needs to be a simplified central message of renewal and optimism that carries everything else.
People will quickly lose interest in Farage and the boats if they think Labour is actually making things better.