Sir Keir Starmer is mulling over a new year reshuffle as he seeks to cement Labour’s advantage in the polls and prepare for government.
Though buoyed by a year in which the party surged far ahead of the Conservatives in polling, some in the Labour leader’s team still question whether he has the right shadow cabinet in place to entrench his commanding position.
There is frustration that the party relies on a relatively small trusted circle of MPs to sell Starmer’s message to the public even though there are 30 people in the shadow cabinet. Senior Labour figures believe that some shadow ministers have failed to make inroads in their briefs even amid a year of unprecedented turmoil in the Conservative Party.
Growing confidence among Labour high command that Starmer will become prime minister next year has led to a new focus on which shadow ministers will best equip Labour not only for a general election campaign but also to govern.
Starmer’s supporters enthuse about the work of Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, who they believe has helped to restore Labour’s economic credibility. She is a crucial part of Starmer’s inner circle and is regularly consulted on major decisions.
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But there are concerns that some others are largely anonymous. One senior Labour source said: “Are our shadow cabinet as well known as they ought to be? No. Are they setting the news agenda? Also no.”
Some of Starmer’s allies want a sweeping clearout. Others believe the right people are in the wrong jobs. Beyond Reeves, Starmer is thought to have told allies he is happy with the performance of David Lammy as shadow foreign secretary and Yvette Cooper as shadow home secretary but sees the need for changes in the lower ranks.
Yet given Labour and the Tories are in alignment on Ukraine, which will likely be the key foreign policy issue until the next election, some in the party ask whether Lammy’s campaigning skills might be better used in a domestic brief. There are also complaints that Cooper has not landed enough blows on the government over immigration and Channel crossings. “Yvette still behaves like a select committee chair,” a senior party source said. “It’s clear she knows the issues inside out, but politically that’s not what matters.” There are similar questions over whether Lisa Nandy has done enough to forge a distinctive Labour response to levelling up while shadowing Michael Gove.
Whatever the grumblings, Cooper and Lammy share rare experience in government. Lammy was a junior minister in the Blair and Brown governments, while Cooper is one of just two members of the shadow cabinet to have been a secretary of state. The other, Ed Miliband, is now firmly part of Starmer’s core team after periodic tensions in which some of the Labour leader’s allies pushed for him to be demoted or sacked.
Ultimately, only a handful of Labour MPs on the back benches have government experience, a fact that in part explains the excitement around the possibility of David Miliband and Douglas Alexander returning to Westminster. Some hope the reshuffle might tempt Hilary Benn, a veteran of the New Labour years, back to the front bench. But it is more likely those promoted will be newer faces, such as Sarah Jones, the shadow policing minister; Darren Jones, chairman of the business select committee; and Stephen Morgan, the shadow schools minister.
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A recent reorganisation that gave control of communications and policy to Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s campaign supremo, has not silenced grumbles over the party’s direction.
Deborah Mattinson, Starmer’s director of strategy and a former pollster to Gordon Brown, is often a lightning rod for the frustrations of aides who fear the party’s message is inhibited by a reliance on focus groups. Her supporters point to the vast polling leads Labour has accumulated on her watch.
One influential Labour figure said: “Big questions need to be settled in 2023 — not by testing words and phrases in focus groups, or asking voters what they want to hear Keir say, but difficult choices from which clarity will emerge.”
Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Times, the New Labour grandee who informally advises Starmer, suggested moves to give him “bolder definition” by “turning him into a British version of Greta Thunberg or by re-enacting last century’s heroic struggle to take down the House of Lords” risked alienating the party’s target voters. It was a notably public broadside in a debate that has hitherto unfolded in private.
Even those closest to Starmer wonder about his core political beliefs. “I suspect he is firmly of the party mainstream on business, the economy, defence and security but because of this he probably feels the need for some left-wing window dressing,” said one source. “Binning the Lords is one example. Trans stuff might be another.”
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Labour officials say the party has three priorities: the economy, making clear that Labour has changed, and entrenching negative public perceptions of Rishi Sunak. In a speech in east London on Thursday, Starmer will pitch himself as the candidate of optimism, with a tone of “hope and change”. Insiders believe the public needs reassurance about voting for Labour after the Jeremy Corbyn years. One senior source said Labour’s message would be: “Corbynism is dead and it isn’t coming back.” They added: “If Keir were hit by a bus tomorrow, what he has started would carry on. The change is permanent, from a party of protest to a party of public service, from nostalgists to reformers, from ideological puritans to centre-left patriots.”
Starmer will continue to attack Sunak as weak, a theme at prime minister’s questions. “[Sunak] can’t get anything meaningful done because he can’t stand up to his party or vested interests,” a Starmer ally said. “So he resorts to doing what all weak bosses do: trying to act macho over those he employs, such as the nurses. It’s the classic weak man’s view of strength.”
Answers
1. Peter Kyle, shadow Northern Ireland secretary
2. Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow trade secretary
3. Louise Haigh, shadow transport secretary
4. Preet Kaur Gill, shadow minister for international development
5. Jim McMahon, shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs
