I could not go to the Labour conference this year, but I read Keir’s speech and also listened to the interview he gave the Today programme. Both were very good analyses of what was wrong with Britain and what needed to be done to fix it. He keeps stressing we are in this for the “long haul”, and he will need ten terms to get everything done. That is the problem, getting things done. In a democracy you have to be a politician to get things done. We have heard all the lofty aspirations, but what matters is actually realising them. At the next election Starmer and the Labour Party will be judged on what actual progress they have made.
So far there have been several political mistakes. We all know the Tories left a spectacular “black hole” in the economy and that something had to be done quickly to demonstrate the government’s determination to fix it. There were many things which could have been cut, but the government picked on the wrong one, Winter Fuel Allowance. For some time people have been saying that the better off did not need it, and it should be targeted on those who do. In the better off part of the country this seemed perfectly sensible, and many agreed with it. At the Labour Party Conference many delegates from the recently won seats in more affluent areas did not object to the cut. Trouble is, as with any means-tested benefit it is those on the borderline who get hit. And there are many of them in the North East.
A lack of “political nous”
All this shows what commentators call a lack of “political nous”. Keir Starmer does not have much political experience, and to steer the Labour project through we must not make mistakes like this.
I have spoken to local Labour Party members who have been knocking on doors, and the reaction is that the first thing a Labour government does is hammer the less well off. At the same time rumours emerge about freebies and Lady Starmer receiving a clothes allowance. All these things may be perfectly justified – mayors get clothes allowances because they are supposed to look smart – but this do not look good. As spin doctors say “the optics” are wrong. I have heard tales of canvassers being afraid to go out because they do not want to be chased down the street.
It’s not only the next general election
You may argue that this will have “blown over“ by the time the government faces the electorate again, particularly if they have delivered some results by then. But there are County Council elections next year, and this is where the effect may be felt. I can remember the 10% tax rate cut in 2007, in the last budget delivered by Gordon Brown as Chancellor before he became Prime Minister. This was so that the overall rate of tax could be reduced before the general election. It hit the low paid hard, and there was a massive campaign led by Frank Field against it, and it was reversed by Alastair Darling in 2008. The damage had been done. I stood for election to the council in 2008 and received plenty of abuse on the doorstep about the 10p rate. I didn’t win. You may remember the Liberals did well in 2010, in the general election. Decisions which hit the poor do not go down well in Labour’s heartlands, and people remember them.
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