Anti-politics and Labour's big mission

I’ve spent much of my professional life emphatically agreeing with the quote, attributed to George Orwell, that “everything is political”. Choices around education, the economy, climate change, migration and identity are intensely political. As the film director Mike Leigh put it “You can't not be political. It's like asking if I consider myself a human being”.

However, dinner with some corporate leaders the other evening, led me to wonder whether we are reaching ‘peak politics’.

In the UK, there is now a clear expectation that the Labour Party will form the government after the next general election. This prospect does not generate excitement among business leaders but nor does it stir any fear. After the raging bin-fire of British politics since 2016, business craves a period of calmness and long-range predictability.

At the next election, Labour will not be promising the earth. They are banking that voters will prefer Keir Starmer’s army of decent, competent problem-solvers to a Tory party riven by division and tainted by incompetence and sleaze. There are echoes of 1997. Back then, Tony Blair was not banging on about foreign wars or radical public sector reform. Instead he was pledging to stick to Conservative tax and spending plans and offering ‘a government of practical measures in pursuit of noble causes.’

Some say the Labour leader lacks vision and charisma, but that wasn’t troubling my business crowd much. They saw Starmer’s approach of setting out five national ‘Missions’ for government as refreshing and evidence (at last) that sensible, joined up, long-term thinking was possible.

The 'Missions' concept is almost anti-politics. Labour is judging that voters have had enough of classic retail politics, with its trite slogans and reductive pledge cards, and they are ready to buy into a series of thoughtful shared objectives. Labour argues that our country’s significant and mounting problems can only be tackled by the state working alongside business in a true partnership model.

This isn’t the same thing as managerialism. A mission-oriented approach offers the scope for a radical shift in how government works. In Mariana Mazzucato’s seminal book, Mission Economy, she provides a template for reinventing the capitalist model with a sense of purpose.

So, how can businesses and their public affairs advisors get ahead of this and help shape Labour’s thinking?

In practical terms, Sue Gray will lead Labour’s “preparation for government” team focusing on how the five Missions can be put into practice. There’ll be “green papers” for the civil service with instructions for delivery.

Labour has intentionally put much focus on an industrial strategy and the Shadow Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds is making himself available to listen and learn.

The key figure, apart from Starmer himself, is Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor. Her trip to the US was designed to send a message that Biden-omics will be followed here. Opposition pamphlets are usually worth swerving but Reeves’ ‘A New Business Model for Britain’ is pure gold in terms of helping understand Labour thinking. It expounds the value in productivism, ‘good jobs’ and creating a new activist role for the state, borrowing hugely from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. While the EU agonises about how to respond to America’s new muscular approach, Labour seems intent to just copy the best bits.

The choice at the next election is becoming clearer. The right will engage in a battle of ideas between Sunak-style sound money Conservatism and the Thatcherite-Trussonomic wing, which will rage beyond the next election. The alternative is a Labour Party, yet to ‘seal the deal’ with the public but with the potential to revolutionise the UK economy and society.

That’s politics, folks.