Like former Conservative leader David Cameron, Labour’s Keir Starmer has successfully modernised his party in opposition. Now he must learn from the former Prime Minister’s preparations for office and the pitfalls that followed, says The Future Governance Forum (FGF), a new progressive, non-partisan think tank focused on fixing Britain’s broken system of government.
Published today, Into Power 02: The Conservative Party’s 2010 transition from opposition to government – written by journalist and author Phil Tinline – emphasises the importance of establishing, and articulating, a clear overriding agenda for change. Doing so will help avoid a major issue that befell Cameron’s government, which lost direction and purpose after downgrading its central project of building a ‘Big Society’ in favour of its drive to cut the deficit. With that clear purpose in place, Labour could then learn much from the Conservatives’ thorough preparations at a departmental level.
The report’s recommendations draw on conversations with former Conservative ministers and advisers, along with former senior civil servants who experienced the 2010 handover of power first hand, including Francis Maude, David Gauke, Nick Macpherson, Helen MacNamara and Sam Freedman. It recommends establishing a muscular centre of government in Number 10 to develop policy and oversee delivery, while warning against scrapping the creations of the former regime simply to signal a break from the past – an error acknowledged by David Cameron who abolished the Blair-era Downing Street Delivery Unit only to later re-establish it.
Labour should consider the idea of developing something akin to the Conservatives’ departmental ‘business plans’ in advance of the election. Although they had their critics, and a Labour government would want to adapt to fit their mission-driven approach to government, such plans in 2010 were praised by senior civil servants from the period as an effective means of signalling policy priorities to the department and hitting the ground running.
When setting priorities for its first hundred days in office, Labour should carefully consider the pace of early reforms, assessing when it is advantageous to work at speed and when doing so may be a recipe for error. A new government should seek to capitalise on its anticipated bout of high political capital to enact bold reforms which take time to bear fruit, but should avoid moving too fast when such a pace is unachievable.
Drawing lessons from 2010, the report provides a series of recommendations Labour could benefit from as it prepares for power:
- Agree on, and clearly articulate, your overriding purpose. Doing so will help maintain direction in office and guide both the making of difficult decisions, and the explanation of these to the public.
- Craft a robust theory of power, both in the country and in government. Identify the vested interests that will block the government’s goals and ways to overcome them. Be clear about where the centre of power will be located.
- Draw up departmental ‘business plans’ in advance signalling key policy priorities.
- Use access talks to establish strong relationships with key officials built on trust.
- Allow Shadow Ministers to make good on their preparatory work by keeping them in the same brief on taking office.
- Ensure the operation is not overly dependent on any one individual, mitigating against the possible impact of early departures of key personnel.
- Avoid abolishing institutions and policy initiatives established by the previous administration unless there is a substantive reason to do so.
Phil Tinline, author of The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares, journalist and author of Into Power 02, said: “If Labour wins the next election, the pressures of government will immediately hit it hard, as a relatively inexperienced team takes over a country battered by crisis after crisis. The Conservatives’ preparation for the last transition offers a host of useful lessons – both from what went well, and what didn’t. Above all, it shows the need to set out exactly why you want to be in government in the first place, before you face the voters. Doing so will provide a North Star to guide you through the blizzard of invidious decisions that will soon follow election victory.”
Adam Terry, Deputy Director of The Future Governance Forum, said: “Comparisons between 2010 and 2024 are striking. Both David Cameron and Keir Starmer reshaped their party’s image while in opposition, and like Cameron, Starmer hopes to assume power amid a challenging fiscal and economic climate after more than a decade out of power.
“With our latest report, The Future Governance Forum hopes to offer timely and insightful recommendations for an incoming government on establishing a clear sense of purpose, on crafting and deploying a theory of power, on calibrating the pace of reform and on ensuring the ability to withstand the pressure of office. Acting on these recommendations could prove decisive for the success of a new administration’s first term and beyond.”
