I have just started reading Tony Blair’s new book on Leadership. Within the first couple of chapters, he emphasises the need for leaders to have a clear plan, and a communications strategy.
Given that Blair regularly talks to Keir Starmer, perhaps the former Labour prime minister can remind the new Labour prime minister of these key bits of advice.
Even the most tribalistic Labour supporters would have to admit that it has been anything but an auspicious start for the new government.
True, the first week went well, with the cabinet positions filled quickly and effectively, some eye-catching appointments, such as that of James Timson to the position of prisons minister, winning plaudits, and Starmer very much looking the part on the international stage. And it is also fair to say that the first major incident the government had to deal with – widespread riots – was handled exceptionally well.
However, since then, it has been one cock-up after another, with Labour failing to get a grip of the political messaging in a way that would suggest that they may have been ready for an election campaign, but not necessarily ready for office.
Aside from announcing the cut to winter fuel allowance way too early, the chancellor Rachael Reeves also failed to explain why it was nonsense to continue the universal payment that was introduced by the last Labour government back in 2009.
Back then, there was no ‘triple lock’ meaning that the relatively generous financial uplifts that pensioners receive today were not available. She should also have made more of the fact that this policy was very much under consideration by the Tories, is supported by many of the right-wing press, not least influential conservative magazine The Spectator – and the clincher – Richard Branson, Mick Jagger, and Rod Stewart are all recipients of the fuel payment.
That this controversial decision has rumbled on throughout the Summer is bad enough. But the constant negative narrative of ‘things can only get worse’, without an accompanying story of what the longer-term gain is for the short-term pain, has left those who were desperate for change more than a little disappointed.
And then we have ‘Wardrobe-gate’. I am old enough to remember the disgraceful stick the late Labour leader Michael Foot got from the press for his ‘donkey jacket’ back in 1982. More recently, Jeremy Corbyn was criticised for his lack of sartorial elegance. And every woman who is directly or indirectly involved in politics, from Thatcher to Cherie Blair, Sam Cam to Angela Rayner, will attest to the fact that there is a keen interest in their choice of clothing.
So, I have no argument with the notion that Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria need to ‘look the part’.
Understandably, some have suggested that the PM earns enough money to buy his own clobber. But given the number of times he and his wife are on public display, perhaps there is a case to be made for a clothing allowance for the LOTO and his partner. But that money could have and should have come from the central Labour Party financial pot – not as a gift from a wealthy individual donor.
I am more sanguine about the reported £100K ‘gifts’ Starmer has declared. All prime ministers and would-be prime ministers get invited to many, many events, and it is both useful and right that they should attend them. However, without the free clothes, the ‘gifts’ story doesn’t gain any traction.
All this leads me to the conclusion that Labour doesn’t yet have a plan – or if it does it has decided to not share it with anyone – and that it most certainly does not have an effective communications strategy.
Who is responsible for the government’s messaging? Who is doing the politics?
Currently, the answer to that seems to be ‘nobody’. Unless that changes quickly, then the talk of Labour being in power for ten years will soon turn to a government frittering away a landslide majority in record time.
When he’s next in conversation with Keir, Blair might also want to offer Starmer Alastair Campbells mobile number!
