Labour have been busy. No one can accuse them of being ill prepared for Government, surprise though the early election date was, nor of inactivity in the first few weeks of government before recess.
Mike Buckley is the director of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations and a former Labour Party adviser
If politics is the art of communication, then Labour has got a great deal better at it in recent years. The party has relearned the value of simplicity when it comes to messaging.
The General Election campaign hung on a single word – ‘change’ – a unifying theme the vast majority of the country, it seemed, could get behind either by voting directly for it or by letting it happen. Far more people did not vote at all, or voted for minor parties, than voted Labour, but only those who voted Conservative can be deemed to have chosen ‘more of the same’.
Since Labour’s historic – if tentative, both in vote share and total vote – win, Labour’s messaging has shifted in two directions.
First is the constant drumbeat of the mess left by the Conservatives. Rachel Reeves argues that Labour have been left the worst economic inheritance of any government since the Second World War.
“We face a legacy of 14 years of chaos and economic irresponsibility,”, she argued on taking power. She said that what she had “seen in the past 72 hours” had “only confirmed” her previous warnings “that whoever won the general election would inherit the worst set of circumstances since the second world war”.
Three weeks on Keir Starmer echoes the point, arguing that ‘every day’ he is finding ‘more mess’ that the Tories left behind. He accused the previous government of leaving a “rot of shortsightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up.
But Starmer and Labour have added a second core argument, stating with good reason that “the hard graft of rebuilding this country has well and truly started, and it is vital that we begin immediately because the last government dropped the ball.”
I say good reason because three weeks in, Labour have been busy. No one can accuse them of being ill prepared for Government, surprise though the early election date was, nor of inactivity in the first few weeks of government before recess.
Their heightened level of activity has come as a shock because we have become so used to governments that achieve – and all too often seek to achieve – next to nothing. This has in part been Tory small state, ‘government must get out of the way’ ideology. It has in part been chosen chaos – the wasted Brexit years, the unfulfilled promises of the Boris Johnson administration (levelling up key among them) which can only be partially excused by the pandemic, the disaster of Liz Truss and directionless of the Rishi Sunak administration.
Instead Labour actively wants to govern – and for them governing clearly means action not words.
Across a swathe of policy areas Labour have not just promised, they have acted. The King’s Speech contained 40 bills promising a swathe of Government action on areas as diverse as economic stability and growth, Great British Energy and the building of Britain to be a clean energy superpower, securing our borders, cracking down on anti-social behaviour and taking back our streets, health, opportunity and a range of others on constitutional reform, cyber security and defence.
Even beyond legislation Labour have acted – Ed Miliband for example has opened the way for more solar farms, onshore and offshore wind and established GB Energy. Nick Thomas Symonds, David Lammy and John Healey have begun rebuilding our relationship with the EU and other nations, and have taken action on security and defence, including concluding a defence pact with Germany.
Other ministerial teams can point to similar levels of activity, and to plans for legislation, government action, and sought partnership with the private sector, European and American allies, with NATO and the EU, further ahead.
As it acts Labour has for this brief time an open field of play. The Conservatives are chastened, quiet, focused on their loss and the leadership contest. Even the Tory press and Tufton Street outriders are digesting the result, working out their next moves. For all his bluster Nigel Farage has had little to say since becoming the MP for Clacton, his most notable move being a trip to the Republican Convention in the US where he seems to have been roundly ignored by Donald Trump.
This period will not last. Labour is wise to use it to take action swiftly while there are few voices to oppose, and in areas where action is needed now if the country is to see change in time for 2028 – for example on energy bills, NHS waiting lists, the cost of living and house building.
If there is opposition it is from Labour’s allies, some of whom fear that Labour is not going far enough. Institute of Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson and others have warned that Labour’s programme, while impressive, does not go far enough or crucially have enough money behind it to bring about the change the country needs.
Labour responds that its policy programme, combined with the GDP growth that will result – and consequent higher tax take that will follow – and a rise in inward investment once businesses see that Britain is once again open for business and under stable governance will plug the gap. Johnson and others remain sceptical.
Who is right remains to be seen. In the meantime we can celebrate the return of active government, and of a government evidently intent on improving the lives of its citizens in the short and long term.
Labour is in a hurry. We should all welcome that, and give our new Government the support it is due.
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