Report to me: why Mandelson should be the sole manager of Labour’s election campaign

The Paul Richards Column

The Times published what it claimed to be the organogram of Labour’s general election campaign structure this week. I hope it was mischief-making on their part, because it looked like a bowl of tagliatelle. Aside from the confusion of roles and reporting lines, there were two obvious faults. The first was that Gordon Brown was placed at the centre of the plan, as though he was in charge of the campaign. The second was that flowing from him were two ‘deputies’: Harriet Harman and Peter Mandelson.

The leader of the party and Prime Minister is not and should not be running the election campaign. The job of the leader is to be on the road and in the studios, connecting with the electorate, not signing off copy for direct mail or planning photo-opportunities. The leader becomes a medium in the election, not a campaign manager. Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Barack Obama were not in charge of their stunningly-successful election campaigns; most of the time they didn’t know what day it was. They delegated the campaign management to campaign managers, and so must Brown.

And who should that be? The Times’ tagliatelle plan suggests Peter Mandelson and Harriet Harman will share that honour. If ever there was a recipe for confusion and chaos, that would be it. You can’t have two strong personalities in charge of a single campaign organisation. You don’t generate creative tension, just tension. Elections, like military campaigns, need command-and-control structures because of the speed with which decisions must be taken and at which things happen. Peter Mandelson should have sole, overall responsibility. He should report to the leader. Everyone else (yes that means you, Cabinet members) should report to him. Simple as that.

Labour should have learned its lesson from previous campaigns. In 1983 the campaign decision-making was based around an open, inclusive structure because Foot wouldn’t say no to anyone who wanted to chip in. So the morning ‘strategy’ meetings were huge, sprawling affairs with an ever-changing cast of politicians, NEC members and senior staff arguing which each other. At one point Foot was going round the room asking for opinions and got to a middle-aged man in a suit. ‘Dunno’ the man said ‘I’m the driver’. Neil Kinnock recalls attending the first few meetings, then packing a suitcase and going on his own personal election tour.

In 1987 Labour famously won the campaign and lost the election. Bryan Gould’s role in that energetic, creative campaign has largely been forgotten. Indeed Bryan Gould has largely been forgotten. The former TV presenter from New Zealand helped to create a campaign with real zing. Peter Mandelson’s influence was also undeniable: photo-opportunities, a campaign grid, a timetable to meet media deadlines.

By 1992, the party slipped back into its old ways. The campaign was spread out in different buildings. The shadow cabinet research team were recalled from Parliament and put in the underground storage room at Walworth Road which used to hold old posters and manifestoes. Their chairs and desks were still wrapped in polythene. Walworth Road was a warren of corridors and small offices, perfect for plotting, but useless for campaigning. The ‘economic secretariat’, John Smith’s shadow treasury advisers (and alternative power-base) was in the building next door. The press office was in hired rooms in 4 Millbank. In the era before email and mobile phones this meant a dislocation of people and functions. David Hare’s play The Absence of War captures some of the flavour of that campaign, with its confused messages and internal rows.

That’s why a bright young Harvard MBA graduate, on secondment from Andersen Consulting, was brought in by Peter Mandelson in 1996 to fashion a campaign structure for the 1997 election. Liam Byrne helped to create the famous ‘war room’ set-up at Millbank Tower, which had clear lines of management and accountability, emanating from the centre of a large open-plan, with Mandelson at the heart of the action. It was based on a private report drawn up by Margaret McDonagh, John Braggins and Peter Barnard, then senior party staff, who had visited Arkansas and seen the Clinton war room in 1992. Tony Blair didn’t pretend to be in charge of the campaign. He delegated to trusted professionals and got on with his job of making speeches and going on the television.

Brown must do the same. Harriet Harman and the other politicians should be on the road for the whole six weeks, not stuck in campaign meetings. Liam Byrne should be allowed to defend his marginal Birmingham seat. We don’t want a Chris Patten moment on election night where the campaign chief loses his own seat through neglect. Peter Mandelson should then get on with delivering an election campaign, free from interference. Alastair Campbell and Philip Gould can supply insight and advice. The party staff can do what they do well. Local candidates can continue to hit the streets against a backdrop of a well-ordered national campaign.

As it happens, I like tagliatelle. But it’s not a good model for how to beat the Tories.