Will Labour’s missions follow online dashboard in being quietly shelved?

Detailed documents outlining Labour’s missions have been deleted from the party’s website, begging the question of whether they will join the online dashboard in being quietly shelved.

Over the past few months the missions appear to have retreated a little in the government’s core messaging, with continual references instead to the “Plan for Change”.

Writing for LabourList recently, former Number 10 policy chief Dan Corry said the Spending Review would tell us what the government’s priorities are, including the missions.

The substance of the missions did receive notable focus, with big increases in investment spending for energy and net zero, transport, and business, in support of missions to grow the economy and decarbonise the energy system.

Health and education also received uplifts, supporting the missions to build an NHS fit for the future and break down barriers to opportunity.

Missions

Yet every mission bar growth went unmentioned by Rachel Reeves, versus three references to the “Plan for Change”.

It is notable too that the party has downgraded the centrality of the missions on its website, and significantly cut back the amount of policy detail and explanation for each.

“Plan for Change” is the main focal point of the website, whereas a smaller link to the missions page consists of a list of them with a single line summarising each.

To take one example, the government’s NHS mission appears as: ‘Build an NHS fit for the future that is there when people need it, where everyone lives well for longer.’

However, back in early 2024, detailed PDF reports appeared alongside each mission on Labour’s opposition-era website.

The previous policy report for building an NHS fit for the future alone was more than 20 pages long, with sections describing the challenges faced by the “broken” system, and the changes Labour would need to make to fix it.

We asked Labour why the reports had been removed, but received no reply.

Dashboard ditched

Similarly, last November it was at least reported the government planned to launch a public dashboard enabling voters to monitor its progress on hitting its six Plan for Change ‘milestones’ – the more tangible, short-term, electorally useful policies billed as a first step towards the missions.

It was billed as part of a “pre-Christmas reset” after approval ratings tanked following the budget.

However, the initiative seemed to be quietly and quickly shelved, with some suggestions it was not seen as “feasible”.

We also contacted Number 10 asking what had happened to the dashboard – but received no reply.

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