The local election results from last Thursday were a total disaster for both of the main parties – but for the government – who also lost one of its safest parliamentary seats in the Runcorn by-election – it should feel particularly stinging.
After all, less than twelve months ago, Keir Starmer swept into power with a landslide General Election victory, and although Labour gained just 33% of the national vote, there was undoubtedly a pool of goodwill from the majority of the country that ought to have delivered them a honeymoon period lasting longer than ten months.
What has caused such a dramatic decline? The winter fuel allowance? National Insurance increases? Changes to farmers inheritance tax? Planned welfare cuts?
In truth, all of the above. But, more damaging than all of these policy missteps, has been the messaging, or rather lack of it, from the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues.
What is the government for? Economic growth may be the mantra, but without a dynamic narrative that creates the political weather, a story of not only what they are doing, but where the country is going, then isolated tough decisions – even if taken for the right reasons – will be neither understood nor forgiven by an impatient electorate.
There will be no easy fixes for Labour – although ironically the government is enjoying one of its best weeks since being elected with trade deals agreed with India, the US, and a cut in interest rates all announced during the last seven days.
However, if Labour is to take advantage of this overdue boost, it must start to take the initiative on policy initiatives, set the political agenda, and stop trying to please all of the people, all of the time – which has left them pleasing none of the people for much of the time.
Labour needs to be honest with the country about the disaster Brexit has been – for the economy, and for immigration and border control. By happy coincidence, the key personality responsible for that catastrophe is the guy who is currently giving them the runaround – Mr. Farage. An urgent reset of our trading relationship with the EU should be at the very top of Rachel Reeves’ agenda.
Ministers keep telling us that the world has changed. They are not wrong. And so, why do they then insist on sticking to a Manifesto that was (mostly) written in 2024. To cope with the seismic geopolitical changes that have taken place this year, the chancellor needs to give herself more wriggle room beyond her own self-imposed ‘fiscal rules’.
Most of all, Labour – and the group calling themselves ‘Blue Labour’ – really do need to give their head a wobble. The populist nonsense of ‘spend more on welfare’, ‘soak the rich’, re-nationalise everything that moves’, and ‘stop immigration’ is a heady cocktail of Corbyn/Farage fantasy politics that, in the end, Keir Starmer will not be able to sell.
Labour promised change. That means fixing Broken Britain – more housing, more infrastructure projects, less regulation, and telling a story of how they are going to do it.
Stop reacting to the Daily Mail headlines and the Reform Party’s simplistic agenda – start governing – and acting like a Labour government.
