Politics is often an abrupt, even cutthroat business – as Matthew Doyle has just discovered, to his personal cost.
The suddenly departed director of communications at No 10 Downing Street never became a household name like, say, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell, Damian McBride, Andy Coulson, Dominic Cummings or, most recently, Sue Gray. And nor did he ever commit the cardinal sin of the government apparatchik: that of himself becoming “the story”.
But his departure from office after just nine months in post – a tenure that ended this week with his metaphorical skulking down Whitehall, cardboard box of mementos in his arms – should set alarm bells ringing within every corner of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
The prime minister gained a huge majority for his party at the general election after he inspired the nation to give him a chance. He did this through showing his personal decency, and combining his common sense with a clear determination to do good for the country. As offerings go, it was a refreshing change from that of the previous administration.
Bringing to life all the ways that Sir Keir intends to alter the country for the better, and the fact that he really means business, should, therefore, be an open goal for the No 10 communications team. And yet the prime minister has been failed by those who propagate government messages in a compelling way to the media, and to the country at large.
It is true that spin doctors, like real doctors, can only do so much for a dysfunctional patient. That is, in fact, very much the predicament that the government has found itself in almost since it took office, and its lamentable performance cannot realistically be blamed entirely on Mr Doyle and his Downing Street colleagues.
It cannot, for example, have been Mr Doyle who decided to means-test the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance, or to ramp up employers’ national insurance contributions – both especially crass moves that combined maximum political damage with minimal economic benefit. The blame there lies principally with the Treasury team, a group who display the kind of arrogance that is normally associated with decades rather than months in power.
It has also been a particularly difficult time for the government as it deals with the second presidency of Donald Trump, whose volcanic exclamations have had a very real effect on Britain’s economy.
In this latest shake-up of the Downing Street operation, we should not underestimate the role of Morgan McSweeney, the closest thing the prime minister has to a consigliere. But by getting rid of a key adviser like Doyle – as he did with Sue, now Baroness, Gray – Sir Keir has shown himself prepared to make tough decisions for the better of his government.
In the end, he is the prime minister, and his words – and their communication – matter. Substance matters more than style. But a few imaginative words from a leader can transform an administration’s fortunes, as when George Osborne, at the height of the coalition’s austerity drive, reminded the public that he was acting “to fix the roof when the sun is shining”.
Sir Keir is right to recognise that the manner in which his key messages are delivered requires a reset.
Economic policy, in both substance and presentation, lies at the core of what the government used to call – in a constantly shifting set of weird slogans – its “missions”, which have come to be seen as failures. Though the chancellor Rachel Reeves barks the line about the £22bn a little too incessantly, such that it sounds more like an alibi, there is no doubt that she inherited a mess. Nor can she be blamed for the damage Mr Trump is wreaking on the global economy, or for the continuing depressing effects of Brexit (though the European “reset” is yet to be even glimpsed).
Yet it is also the case that the government has to take responsibility for failing to live up to the expectations it fostered before polling day. The public, just to remind Labour MPs, did not vote to “balance the books on the backs of the poor”, or for all the tax increases.
The measures that have been taken by ministers to remedy matters since have sometimes reeked of panic, sometimes been badly targeted, sometimes appeared gratuitous – but in other cases they have been well-judged, and inevitable. We shall see in the coming months whether the emergency steps Labour took on coming to power last summer – the Budget, the spring statement, the welfare reforms and the forthcoming spending review – will indeed put public spending and borrowing on a sustainable path.
In the meantime, though, the government does need a broader narrative that explains to the public why it is doing what it is doing. This is the “messaging” the Starmer administration desperately needs.
Nowadays, we hear nothing about the intricately constructed framework of missions, targets, milestones and pledges that preoccupied the Labour Party not so long ago. Just as well, really, as they clarified nothing and delivered less.
Put at its simplest, the voters might be more willing to put up with the pain they are going through if they could be assured that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Past governments have had to squeeze the economy and living standards in order to reduce public debt, get inflation down, save the pound, restructure the economy, or rebuild public services. Slick PR doesn’t guarantee success – sound policies are rather more important – but the very least any leader owes an electorate that gave them a landslide of a mandate is to convince people that the sacrifices they’re being asked to make will indeed be worth it.
It is a job of persuasion, and one that Labour, so adept at exploiting Tory blunders and creating optimism before the election, has proved dismal at in office. We have the pain – what does the gain look like? And when do we see it?
The Independent took the unusual step of endorsing Labour at the general election – not just because the Tories were dying of incompetence, but because Labour apparently had a plan for growth, upon which so much depends. Whatever else, over the past few months economic growth hasn’t been much in evidence, and it looks very much like it won’t be for the rest of the decade.
The next few years are unusually uncertain, but it’s fairly clear that, for most of the British people, they will be a hard slog. All the public want is for their prime minister, the chancellor, and the cabinet to avoid hypocrisy, demonstrate competence, and show them what all this is in aid of.
Even better, it would be nice if people’s “lived experience” – as parents, patients, passengers, tenants, homeowners and workers – began to convince them that voting Labour was worth it, and would be worth doing again. Sir Keir has enjoyed great success in foreign policy, and should be given the credit for that. But it is not enough.
Perhaps the new jobshare comms team at No 10 can coax some sort of political narrative along these lines out of Sir Keir and Ms Reeves, so that it can give a theme to speeches, adorn posters, and appear in TikTok videos. What’s the government for? It is not too much to ask.
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