What have farmers, pensioners, university students, bus users, and business owners got in common? Answer – they are all a little bit pissed off with the new Labour government.
Changes to inheritance taxes, the Winter Fuel Allowance, tuition fees, fare caps, and employers National Insurance Contributions has left Keir Starmer and his new administration facing criticism from a diverse range of groups – with his honeymoon period coming to a very short, sharp end.
It has not been the most auspicious of starts for the new regime. From internal difficulties that eventually led to the resignation of Sue Gray as the PMs chief-of-staff, riots on the back of an horrendous attack and murder of three children in Southport, and, on the international front, the unwelcome return to the Whitehouse of Donald Trump, this was not how it was supposed to be after Labour achieved its thumping election win back in July.
To be fair, it is hard to remember a government that was inheriting such a shit-fest. Osborne’s austerity agenda from 2010-16 accelerated the decline of an already creaking UK infrastructure. Cameron’s Brexit gamble has cost the country 4% annually in GDP. Johnson’s Boosterism promised everything and delivered virtually nothing. His mismanagement of the Pandemic was best illustrated by his ignoring of his own COVID rules and Partygate. Liz Truss finished what George Osborne has started and absolutely crashed the economy, and the UKs financial reputation into the bargain. Sunak cancelled HS2, abandoning any remaining pretence of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ – and his chancellor Jeremy Hunt implemented a National Insurance cut that the country could not afford (a £20 BILLION tax bribe that may have failed to work for the Tories in the short-term but is arguably helping them create the negative narrative around Labour now).
So, there should be much sympathy for Starmer and his team. Why isn’t there? Largely, I think, because of Labour’s inability to effectively communicate.
First, they need to constantly remind people of the absolute mess they are trying to clear up. You may think that looking back in anger doesn’t work, but if it was okay for Jeremy Hunt to be banging on about Gordon Brown’s economic incompetence and reminiscing about 2008 in 2024, then it is more than legitimate that Labour politicians continue to remind voters of its lousy inheritance.
Second, have some co-ordination around the policy-setting and the actions that the government is taking. From the headlines, you would think that Rachel Reeves has simply given train drivers an inflation busting pay increase, whilst simultaneously attacking our agricultural industry, old folk, young people, and bosses, whilst Keir travels the globe, and the rest of the cabinet obediently observe her ‘cruelty’.
In fact, the government has been incredibly busy and active, beyond the things that have been making the news in recent months.
The PM and his Home Secretary Yvette Cooper are well on with a radical, and practical, plan to begin to tackle the record numbers of migrants that have entered the country under their predecessor’s watch. Cooper has also announced long overdue additional funding for our police forces. And those riots I mentioned-they were handled superbly.
An injection of £22 billion has been made into the NHS, a service that has never been in as big a crisis as it is now facing – with a radical reform agenda being worked on by Wes Streeting and his team, to be introduced in 2025.
They have launched new legislation to get the railways back into public ownership. Kickstarted the rollout of breakfast clubs for school children. Scrapped the ban on onshore wind and unblocked solar schemes. Secured a record 131 new green infrastructure projects. Secured north of £60billion of private sector inward investment. Kickstarted a plan to re-introduce neighbourhood policing. Announced reform of planning laws that will enable record numbers of houses being built in the country in this century. And, they have announced measures to penalise water bosses who pollute our waters.
For a government that has not been in power for six-months yet – that is not too shabby a record. However, where is the communication, the co-ordination, the messaging? And as Jo Phillips says in her blog today, communications is about listening too!
In his blog this week, Jim Hancock reminds us us that in the wake of that Sue Gray resignation a new communications chief was appointed. It is time for him and his Comrades to deliver. Otherwise, Peter Mandelson may not be the only former Blairite being, possibly, invited back into frontline politics. I’m sure Alastair Campbell would relish the chance to serve once again.
