Labour’s conference next week will be a celebration of the party’s spectacular victory over the Conservatives in July. Understandably so. But warning signs for the future cannot now be brushed aside. Neither the government nor Sir Keir Starmer has enjoyed a political honeymoon since July. Poll ratings are increasingly poor. Something is failing in Labour’s way of governing. This needs to be addressed – and fast.
The big picture, Labour will insist, is that it takes time to undo the economic, social and cultural damage left by the Conservatives. That is undoubtedly true, and Labour was careful – to a fault – not to promise quick remedies during the election campaign. But the July manifesto could not have been more emphatic about Labour’s commitment to doing politics and government differently and better from day one. This is exactly where Labour seems to have lost the plot.
Two separate problems have overlapped to expose what is wrong. One is the way that Sir Keir and his wife have accepted donations and benefits from corporates and wealthy supporters, notably Lord Alli, for such things as clothes, glasses and accommodation, as well as football and concert tickets. The sums involved are often high-end: £4,000 worth of Taylor Swift concert hospitality, accommodation worth more than £20,000 and £2,485 on new glasses. Sir Keir has now declared more free tickets and gifts than any major party leader in recent times.
This is an avoidable and self-inflicted wound. During the election, Sir Keir said politics must repair itself if it is to ask for sacrifices and belt-tightening from the public. “Politics must make the first move,” the manifesto insisted. Yet that approach was left on the starting blocks when the tickets were dangled. It is hard to believe that a leader who laid such stress on the need to rebuild trust in politics should behave so naively. It is not hard to say no. Sir Keir could and should have done so. His failure feeds the destructive belief that all politicians are the same.
The arguments swirling around Sir Keir’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, are different. As one of the most senior officials in No 10 she presides over what is frequently a political bear pit, in which battles for influence and unwelcome leaks go with the territory. As a senior woman, Ms Gray is almost certainly a particular lightning rod. As the head of the inquiry that contributed to Boris Johnson’s fall, she is a marked woman for Labour’s opponents, including some journalists and perhaps some officials. And now, as the prime minister’s highest paid adviser, earning more than Sir Keir himself, she has also become a target for more junior advisers who are paid a lot less.
Sir Keir hired Ms Gray to prepare Labour’s teams for government. The rows suggest they did not prepare thoroughly enough, or give the issues enough priority. The mishandling of Sir Keir’s gifts suggests this in particular. So, increasingly worryingly, does the absence, 11 weeks into the government’s term, of an updated ministerial code, which a new prime minister is supposed to issue promptly, setting clear rules for how ministers must behave. A stronger and more unified senior team of officials and advisers is overdue to fill what feels like a vacuum.
This is not a fatal moment for Sir Keir’s prime ministership. But it is a failure from which it is vital that Sir Keir should learn. He needs a stronger commitment to standards, effectively and independently enforced, so that politics and government can begin to be trusted again. That is not happening at the moment. But it is indispensable. Without it, the risks facing Labour in government will only continue to grow.
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