| 8 mins read
If you are under the age of 30, you probably can’t remember the last time we had a Labour government. (My undergraduate students can only just remember the Brexit referendum.) You might be surprised to learn, then, that competence and decency used to be the norm.
As everyone has noted, the new team have got off to a good start. Sir Keir Starmer looked like a Prime Minister from the off. Rachel Reeves has been transformed into the powerhouse of the Treasury, showing business who is now in charge. David Lammy exuded authority as he spoke of his enslaved people’s heritage in the hallowed Foreign Office which once presided over the empire.
And over in the City of London the mood is one of relieved calm. When Liz Truss unveiled her disastrous mini-budget, financial traders spoke of the ‘moron premium’: the extra cost of government borrowing when there are incompetents running the show. Today they are giving the new administration a ‘grown-ups in the room bonus’.
Yet I hate to spoil the party: for any new government the first month is much the easiest. You have your initial announcements already lined up, the opposition is in disarray and the dogs of the media have their tongues hanging out eager to lap up every word.
It gets more difficult once you are trying to get planning reforms through a Parliament whose members all suddenly seem to have defected to the NIMBY Party.
So what are the keys to governing successfully? Actually, there is a group of people who know the answer to that – and also how not to do it. They are the ministers and advisers who served in the last Labour government, from 1997 to 2010. A few of them are actually in the new one – eight of the present Cabinet were ministers under Gordon Brown. Some are now in the House of Lords, and others have become academics. They all have useful tips to pass on.
At the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute we thought it would be interesting to gather these pearls of wisdom in one place, so our new podcast series – ‘Lessons in Power: What can the new Labour government learn from the last one?’ – brings together ministers and advisers from the Blair and Brown era to find out what advice they would offer their successors.
So here are some results: six recommendations on how a new government can best turn its ideals and ambitions into actual achievements.
Focus on the important things
First, ensure the Prime Minister focuses on the most important things. Sally Morgan, who was Tony Blair’s Political Secretary, and Gavin Kelly, deputy chief of staff to Gordon Brown, warn that this is not easy: the PM, his policy advisers and his communications team will almost certainly disagree about what the most important things are. So there has to be a clear set of strategic priorities which he is personally committed to achieving; and he has to trust that his close team will take decisions on all the other things in the ways he would have done if only he had time to think about them.
Take charge
Second, take charge. Many ministers think their job is essentially making announcements about policy. But it’s the implementation of policy that makes a difference to people’s lives. Some government departments do implementation well. But others are notoriously bad at it. David Blunkett, who was Home Secretary from 2001-04, describes the dysfunctional culture of the Home Office; on the delivery of immigration policy its incompetence got so bad he forced the responsible division to report weekly to an internal board chaired by the minister.
Set up a review
Third, set up a review. Many things which the new government wants to do will have powerful opponents – in business, in the media, among the public. Asking a member of the great and good to conduct an independent review can help justify a new policy approach and build public consensus behind it. As former head of the No 10 Policy Unit Nick Pearce notes, Gordon Brown famously used such reviews to propose the things he already wanted to do. The Wanless Review paved the way for his tax increases to pay for higher health spending; the Barker Review advocated for planning reforms (yes, this will not be the first go at that); the Stern Review led to a new approach to climate policy.
Use the law
Fourth, use the law. The 2008 Climate Change Act has been one of the most remarkable institutional innovations of the last 20 years. By requiring every government, of whatever stripe, to set five-year targets (‘carbon budgets’) on a trajectory towards net zero, and then to produce plans to meet them, the Act has forced even reluctant governments to make strong climate policy – and when they don’t, the High Court has told them to go and have another go. Carey Oppenheim, who advised Blair on welfare and early years policy, thinks that a comparable law could require governments to set targets and policies to get to zero poverty. She warns, though, that such policy will require a joined-up approach across multiple departments, and a powerful centre (No 10 and the Treasury) to ensure it happens.
Learn from elsewhere
Fifth, learn from elsewhere. The UK is notoriously insular when it comes to policy making. In line with our more general national delusions, we assume that we must already be doing things better than other countries. But it’s rarely true, and especially not over the last 14 years. Geoff Mulgan, who headed the No 10 Strategy and Policy Units under Blair, lists a whole series of innovative approaches in other countries, from Estonia to India, in fields ranging from the use of digital platforms to public communication and participation methods. And don’t just import the ideas, he argues; bring in the people. The most innovative units of government under new Labour, he says, were made up of half civil servants, half outsiders.
Make friends overseas
Six, make friends overseas. Gordon Brown’s foreign policy adviser Stewart Wood recalls how Brown was initially impatient with the ‘getting to know you’ sessions the Foreign Office wanted to arrange with other leaders. But it was those personal relationships which enabled him to persuade the self-same leaders to back his plan to rebuild the global economy after the financial crash of 2008-9.
After the euphoria of the first few weeks, governing well gets difficult. But it’s been done before. Who knows, maybe those new shiny ministerial cars will have our podcast playing in the back. (Other tips on good government are also available.)
