Britain, and Labour, believing in ourselves again

Andy Burnham’s comms team has set out the four message areas they want to focus on as they tell the story of the new Labour government. 

These are: 

1. Britain believing in itself again
2. Britain better off
3. Room to breathe
4. Power to communities

Many on the left worry about a focus on communications and personality-led politics. The concern is that the policy becomes a second order issue to ‘vibes’. But the truth is that the two are so deeply intertwined that they cannot – and should not – be separated (I might also argue that the hairshirt approach is also, in itself, a vibe).

Labour has been through a rough period of disappointment, low polling, bad election results and then a bloodless coup for its leadership. It would be quite natural for us to spend some time navel gazing and infighting. Let’s face it – it’s often our normal state. But, however natural, it would also be completely wrong.

Looking at these messages – some of which are already appearing in Labour comms – they combine a sense of mission and vision that no Labour member could realistically disagree with.

READ MORE: WATCH: Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister (NEW LabourList Podcast)

The first two build on the Starmer legacy of restoring our reputation on the world stage that had been previously trashed by the Tories and the foundations that have been laid to steady the economy.

This might feel unfair to those who have left the government and not everyone who supported Starmer is responding with the grace the man himself has shown. But as Toby Perkins MP says in that link, “further infighting is only a pathway to a Reform government.” Starmer doesn’t want that, Labour members don’t want that, the country and voters don’t need that.

So winner or loser in the reshuffle, all Labour MPs must remember why they got into politics in the first place. It was to help people in their everyday lives. It was to give ordinary Britons the support they need to thrive.

Those who served in Starmer’s government can claim some of the credit for what they have already done to change lives and to give Burnham the space to make deeper change possible. And Andy’s team should be gracious in recognising that.

But Burnham is quite right to seek to restore a sense of swagger to Britain – and to Labour. For too long our answer to any question focused on the difficulties of change – not on its potential. For too long, the country has been told that we are in decline with little sense that we were doing more than ameliorating the impact of that decline – not fundamentally shaping a radical response to turn it around.

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Not everything Burnham does will work. Governing is hard and it’s OK for us to recognise that among ourselves at times. But that doesn’t mean we have to focus on those difficulties when presenting ourselves to a country that needs us to hope, strive and work for more and better. 

Labour politics is often focused – rightly – on the hardest of lives. The most vulnerable are the people who inspire us to get into politics. But that doesn’t mean our politics has to be joyless. It is not a betrayal of the poor to be positive about politics. In fact, it is an essential component of changing their lives for the better. It helps us to build a coalition between those at the sharpest end and those whose lives have got incrementally more difficult. Both of those groups can be part of the ‘us’ that Labour is for. Bringing these groups together has always been – and always will be how Labour succeeds.

As Reform has started to dive into a cloud of scandal while increasingly showing petulent resentment of scrutiny, the space to be the party of optimism and a bright future has opened up for Labour. By constantly projecting a sense that we are trying our hardest while enjoying ourselves doing so we offer a powerful combination of messages.

Britain can start to believe in itself again. So too can the Labour Party. 

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