Starmer overhauls his top team of staffers ahead of Batley by-election

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Keir Starmer has been under significant pressure for some time to change his team of staffers. Whether it is due to remote working during the pandemic, because his advisers have genuinely not been up to the job, or some other combination of the criticisms often levelled at the inner circle, it was common for Labour MPs and party insiders to remark that it was the leader’s office that needed a reshuffle more than the shadow cabinet, particularly in the wake of the Hartlepool defeat.

Changes are now happening. Ben Nunn and Paul Ovenden are quitting their roles as director and deputy director of communications in Starmer’s office, it was confirmed on Friday (Nunn is moving onto other things, while Ovenden is leaving due to family reasons). Stephanie Driver, who worked for the Fabian Society until recently and has been a Labour staffer before, has been asked to step up to the director post while plans are made for Starmer’s new team. Chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s role is changing, to become more focused on election preparations and less on day-to-day tasks. Director of politics Jenny Chapman, who has been the most criticised of all, has not left yet, though the Sunday Times reports she will do so in due course.

Labour MPs are expecting – or hoping – that Starmer’s new aides will bring more experience to the office, which currently comprises a remarkably young team. Someone like Damian McBride or Alastair Campbell, one frontbencher suggested to me. Words like “attack dog”, “Rottweiler” and “ruthless” crop up regularly. Of course Labour mainly needs to be able to pick one clear message to communicate, rather than preferring to release bits of commendable policy on a wide range of topics, without them coming together in a coherent package, which ensures that none of the ideas cut through.

Starmer also needs to look and sound more confident. Particularly post-Hartlepool, the Labour leader too often appears unsure of himself and what he’s saying. He is a man who likes to have a plan, having mapped out his leadership in stages: one, earn the right to be heard by emphasising values, while dealing with internal party problems; two, present a broad vision, while ramping up attacks on the Tories; three, finally get into the details of Labour’s offer.

The May results showed that voters need more than ‘we’re not the last lot’ as a key message, but this should not be cause for panic – or for talking down Labour. The party is desperate to chase after the voters lost in 2019, fixated on the so-called ‘Red Wall’, yet should not be coming across as if it doesn’t care about the electoral support it does have: knowledge of the West of England and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough results should not be confined to the LabourList readership, and the votes of young graduates are not to be sniffed at – they still count!

Celebrating wins does not mean failing to appreciate Labour’s huge electoral challenges, although this is how it seems the party often thinks. And as the Labour Together review stressed, Labour cannot take its current voter base for granted. The Batley and Spen by-election on July 1st will likely drive this lesson home further still.

Over the weekend, the Mail on Sunday quoted a senior Labour official as saying the party is losing support among Muslim voters because Starmer has been tackling antisemitism. The Islamophobic remark pits communities against each other and suggests some in the party not only overlook those who do currently back Labour but actively hate them. Labour figures have responded by unequivocally condemning and disowning the comment.

Labour is in a real mess, everyone can probably agree. Replacing the last leader who had terrible approval ratings was not the silver bullet some had been hoping for. Reshuffling the shadow cabinet and the leader’s office could help with the task of communicating one big Labour mission to voters, but there is also a fundamental issue of respect – for itself, its supporters and its potential supporters – that the party would do well to address.

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