Last weekend, the FT’s Janan Ganesh raised all manner of hackles (again) with a pop quiz on Asian history. To that end, let’s do something similar but for Labour politicians.
No cheating, GDPR has been suspended, pens at the ready. Can you name:
- The shadow foreign secretary
- The shadow environment secretary
- The shadow defence secretary
- The shadow Wales secretary
- The shadow leader of the Commons
If you answered any of these correctly, do not pass ‘Go’, do not collect £200, close this newsletter at once and pick up a copy of The Da Vinci Code or Eat, Pray, Love at your local Waterstones. You are wasting a perfectly good life.
The point of the above isn’t to make fun of voters or politicians. Unhappy is the land where the shadow solicitor general (STOP IT) enjoys high name recognition – it couldn’t possibly be for anything good.
So I think the least interesting thread of a fascinating bit of polling by Ipsos for the Standard is on how the public struggles to name the vast majority of the shadow cabinet. The same was said for members of David Cameron’s opposition frontbench team, and some of those people were Theresa May and Michael Gove.
What does stand out from the poll is Labour’s many varieties of lead. On the headline figure, the party has extended its advantage over the Conservatives to 22 points, 47 per cent to 25 per cent. Labour leads on practically every policy area, including the top five issues highlighted by voters: health, cost of living, the economy, immigration and education. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves edges out Jeremy Hunt as “most capable chancellor” by 41 per cent to 29 per cent.
The main negative for Starmer is that half of adults say they don’t know what he stands for, a figure up six points since January (which is by now several U-turns ago). It’s curious, because Labour still has a bunch of quite radical policies – on industrial strategy, energy, workers’ rights and planning law.
In today’s paper, Alastair Campbell says crystallising in the public’s mind why a Labour government would be better must be the priority. This sounds like good advice, and clearly there’s a question of how all these policies can be communicated.
At the same time, I wonder how much of this is a hangover from Covid. Recall that Starmer became Labour leader during a national crisis, one in which he knew there would be little political benefit in challenging a government enjoying somewhat of a boost in sympathy and support. As a result, the Labour leader frequently found himself supporting rather than criticising the government for much of his first year.
This was the right call. Starmer weathered the vaccine bounce and now finds himself 22 points ahead in the polls and, thanks to trouble north of the border, likely to pick up seats in Scotland too, which further reduces the required Labour lead for a parliamentary majority.
Now, politics is dynamic. There is still room for improvement (and scope to fall). But having crushed Jeremy Corbyn, outlasted Boris Johnson and dominated (according to the polls) Rishi Sunak, we may eventually have to accept that Keir Starmer is actually quite good at politics.
In the comment pages, Anne McElvoy says Prince William’s fight against homelessness could benefit all London. Nimco Ali calls out the West for repeatedly failing the global south on climate change. While Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, warns London is at risk of wrecking its skyline.
And finally, what’s it like aboard the sleeper train from London to Berlin? Nick Curtis beds down on the new overnight service and revisits his favourite city.
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