Vidhya and Jill, congratulations on becoming joint Chiefs of Staff. Keir couldn’t have appointed better people. You were always the living refutation that No 10 was a “boys’ club” — now you’re in charge. It’s a tough job, for so many reasons but most particularly because you have so few peers in the Labour party whose experience you can draw on. We win so rarely that unfortunately we don’t have a large bench of Labour former Chiefs of Staff to a PM. As a former Chief of Staff to a Scottish Labour leader, I thought I’d send you my first thoughts on the job ahead.
First, remember that governing is not campaigning. It was the first advice that the Clinton White House gave to No 10 — you have to win the electoral cycle not just the news cycle. What you do tactically has to ladder up to an overall political strategy. That strategy was there in the radical manifesto that won Labour a landslide. One of Keir’s core commitments was to restore trust in politics. Now he has to do it because of his government as well as the Tories. Luckily, Gordon Brown has prepared a programme to implement.
Second, this was all so predictable and also so avoidable. The manifesto was a plan for government. But where was the plan to develop and implement it in government? You have the largest, most able, and underutilised Parliamentary Labour Party in 20 years. Yet most of them have been too scared to discuss ideas for fear of what “No 10 think.” The self censorship of backbenchers partly reflects the necessary self-discipline of opposition but needed a signal from the top that all progressive ideas were welcome. Politics is a battle of ideas. From reforming the miners’ pension scheme to restore money to retired miners, to making sure that all our car plants are on at least two shifts, Labour backbenchers have been at the forefront of the fight. Empower and involve them!
Third, politics is a contact sport and of course it will be bruising for time to time. But it is also a team sport. The full revelation of emails and messages between Peter Mandelson and ministers and advisors will inevitably lead to some changes. Get all of those out as soon as possible — however embarrassing for the individuals and the government. Some problems are so big they can’t be avoided and you have to go through them. That publication will be an opportunity for renewing the front bench and the ministries. Time for a new team — a Labour team and one appointed without some of the apparently arbitrary patronage that marked earlier ones. The mid-term moment which we are approaching was always going to need a refresh. This way new faces and new voices can help push new and better stories to promote the genuine achievements of the first 20 months. Remember it was our own backbench that prevented us from doing the most un-Labour things over welfare policy.
Fourth, build on Keir’s strengths in foreign policy, defence and security. The increase in defence spending he has delivered can be a pillar of reindustrialisation. It plays to both the patriotic impulses and the economic needs of so many of the voters we need to win back. And defence gives a third pillar for industrial strategy alongside the green transition and the deregulation of housing and infrastructure. Time for Labour’s own Khaki Budget. Yet we should always remember the broader international role that the UK can play. The first ever meeting of the United Nations General Assembly was held in Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. And the first meetings of Nato were held in London.
The point is that we used to shape the global future rather than respond to it. The rewriting of the international order is a task the UK is well suited for — and we know that real progress on climate crisis can only be made with multilateral agreements and those will need robust new multilateral structures. With the Mutual Defence Agreement nearing the 70th anniversary of nuclear cooperation with the US, we will never break from our special relationship with the United States. But with the “coalition of the willing” in Ukraine, the Joint Expeditionary Force in the High North, and Aukus with Australia we have found innovative ways to lead in security.
Fifth, burn up the road. The country gave us a mandate for change — they need to see and feel it. The project has to be transformative not transactional, so do big things and small things but always make sure they are noticed. Ban smartphones in schools — the evidence is in. By all means tackle the cost of living but since housing costs are the largest element of most people’s living costs you have to deal with housing head on.
Learn from the pandemic and establish a Housing Task Force with the resources and authority of the Vaccines Task Force. Get building going again by managing it directly. Set up development corporations in weeks, as Michael Heseltine did after the Toxteth riots, not the years the New Towns are going to take. Build council housing. Use government land. Emergencies demand urgent action. The UK has the most powerful and untrammelled executive in the Global North. There’s a good reason Lord Hailsham called our country an “elective dictatorship.” Use those powers.
Finally, don’t be ground down. So many people want you to succeed. There is so much to be done and still so much time. There’s over three and a half years till the next general election — that’s longer than a federal parliamentary term in Australia. Good luck.
[Further reading: Inside Keir Starmer’s crisis speech to No 10 staff]
Content from our partners
Related
Join the debate
Subscribe here to commentDefense spending is a black hole of perpetual debt, unless you can turn this into products you sell the third parties, as opposed to importing weapons. The UK withdrew from its largest (and fastest growing) accessible market for defense a decade ago and has so far failed to regain access.