Category: Government

With Starmer finished, we need a proper conversation about what ‘change’ looks like

Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street

It’s cruel to call it another U-turn. But growing speculation about Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation, days after insisting he wouldn’t walk away from Number 10, feels fitting.

Last week, the Prime Minister pledged to fight any challenger to his role. Steadfast, if weary, interviews like the one below pointed to progress on growth and NHS waiting lists. This progress doesn’t seem to cut through to the wider public though.

Andy Burnham’s resounding win in the Makerfield by-election changed the tone, gradually then suddenly.

Talk of fighting on is fading, with ministers saying yesterday that the Prime Minister is reflecting on his position. Today, in the face of mounting pressure and fighting back tears, he resigned. *

So here we are, less than two years after storming into office, facing the prospect of a SEVENTH Prime Minister in a decade. His promise to businesses in Bristol to end the psychodrama that defined politics over that period feels like a speck in the distance.

It’s desperately sad that it’s come to this. And it highlights to me a collective madness that passes for public discourse about politics in this country, fuelled largely by bad actors.

‘I wish him well,’ said Donald Trump casually overlooking the fact that net migration into the UK is falling under Labour.

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There’s still time for Labour, if it matches promises with action

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves chat with Gordon Brown as he is appointed as Special Envoy on Global Finance and Cooperation at 10 Downing Street.

“In the first two years or so of government, we were right to level with the public about the challenges that we faced as a country, the legacy we inherited, the international situation, but what we didn’t do was convince them about the future and how things can be better.

“We need to do that, and to be really clear… about not going back to the status quo.”

Keir Starmer speaking to The Observer at the weekend.

The predictions proved correct. The local and devolved elections were as painful for Labour as the response was inevitable.

Ministers speak on the media rounds of the need to reflect and listen to voters. Some MPs, alarmed by the scale of the defeat, call for Keir Starmer to go. The PM himself says he’s not going anywhere.

And strikingly, he spoke on Friday of his determination to break with the status quo ‘once and for all’. Action is needed and act he did. By bringing Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman back into government the next day.

I have huge admiration for Brown and Harman. But their return masterfully sums up how the public sees the PM, pledging to break with the past one day and inviting a former PM back into the fold the next.

The media lapped it up, providing relief in a relentless news cycle. But talking about the election results as a big moment – or a ‘seismic earthquake’ as Reform weirdly did – misses the bigger truth which has screamed back at us for years.

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Holed below the waterline: why Starmer needs a vision for the country  

Sir Keir Starmer in a submarine

Two weeks before the next elections, headlines spell big trouble for Labour.

Candidates contest more than 5,000 seats across 136 councils and devolved governments in England, Scotland, and Wales a week on Thursday (7 May).

Sensible money points to a drubbing for a Labour Party led by a deeply unpopular Prime Minister facing calls to resign over the Mandelson crisis.

According to this projection, Reform stands to gain the most from Labour and Conservative losses.

Look at those numbers again for a second. Labour could lose more than ONE THOUSAND council seats in England. Reform could rise from nowhere to gain more than 1,200, councillors with Greens and Lib Dems also squeezing the Labour vote.

And, unthinkably until quite recently, Labour could also lose the Senedd to either Reform or Plaid Cymru.

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Collaborative, confident, clear – making the case for flourishing regions

An aerial shot of housing in Bristol, with views of the cityscape and the River Avon

“One of the things I heard in the Treasury at the time [I was a minister in that department] is that ‘there is no such thing as local growth.’”

The Rt Hon Greg Clark, ex cabinet minister.

Former housing secretary Greg Clark’s insight into his discussions with Treasury staff speaks to a mindset within government that’s constrained the economy for too long.

Overly centralised, mistrusting of local partners and blind to great organisations supporting growth across the country. It’s a bleakly depressing take.

Thankfully, that comment shared by Mr Clark in Bristol last week happened more than a decade ago. And although it’s easy to miss in the day to day, we’ve seen a shift since then.

Devolution is on the agenda. The Chancellor’s Mais Lecture pointed to further investment in cities. And local growth is happening.

In the west country, we now have the evidence to back it up. I attended the Festival of Flourishing regions yesterday (19 March), which launched a major piece of work by universities looking at how our region is doing.

The Brunel Centre’s Strategic Economic Audit of the West of England doesn’t roll off the tongue easily. But it contains a raft of data and insights from people who work here that should be invaluable to those making the case for investment, for government backing or just to better tell the story of this place.

The report highlights that our region which covers the four local authority areas around Bristol and Bath is the most productive outside of London. We’ve got innovative businesses, strong trade, a skilled labour market and four great universities.

It also speaks to challenges, which need fixing – transport, housing affordability, child poverty, and youth unemployment in Bristol.

I was struck by the section on business which highlights that SMEs in the region are stuck in a ‘holding pattern’, lacking confidence in the wider economy and reluctant to invest.

This is complex, multi-layered stuff. It was good to hear senior well-respected speakers like Greg Clark offer reflections in a measured way that stands in contrast to much of the shrill commentary we see in the media.

Anyone who lives and works in the West of England will have their own perspective on what works and what doesn’t. Like me, they’ll have their own views on what the data says. It’s worth taking a look for yourself.

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Gorton and Denton shows how not to lose, and what it takes to win

Losing part Reform logo pictured in Gorton and Denton

Even when losing a contest you badly want to win, there’s something to be said for dignity in defeat. You can still lose gracefully and earn respect and win friends.

There are memorable examples of this, which stand out against the febrile atmosphere surrounding public discourse today.

When New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern resigned in 2023, she said she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job justice. She could have blamed opponents or spun the decision. Instead, the message was simply: it’s time for someone else to lead.

Then there’s the letter I wrote about five years ago from former US President George HW Bush to his White House successor Bill Clinton in 1993, congratulating him on his victory and wishing him well.

“I’m rooting for you,” he wrote.

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Working from home ‘debate’ should step out of the 1980s

1980s typewriter

Here we go again…

It’s like the last five years never happened.

Nigel Farage’s recent ‘have a go Britain’ speech included a snippet on working from home that will land badly with many because of its failure to recognise the realities of modern life.

Weirdly calling for an ‘attitudinal change’ (whatever that means), his speech to Reform supporters said:

“People aren’t more productive working from home. It’s a LOAD. OF. NONSENSE. They’re more productive being with other fellow human beings and working as part of the team.”

Many of his applauding supporters looked like they hadn’t worked in many years. I’ll come back to that.

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