A New Labour Government

Written by Former BBC Presenter & Correspondent Robin Brant

On days like this the most important acronym in the BBC newsroom is WDIAM. If you were asked to do a Wid-Ey-Ayy-Em it was evidence that something very significant and substantial was happening.

What Does It All Mean is the big question.

The proper answer to that takes time to emerge. But we know the toplines from Labour’s massive win. The scale of the victory that our First-Past-The-Post parliamentary system has handed to Keir Starmer is very clear.

A few other things are obvious too; how you communicate during a campaign is vital, how you then define delivery - actually doing stuff once you’ve won – is also crucial.

Labour was very disciplined in its national campaign. The message was clear; change (a.k.a turn page, end chaos, stability). It didn’t swerve. It was ambiguous at times. It lacked detail. I’ve written about the incoming Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her description of working people as ‘people that go to work’. But they stuck to the core messages.

Delivery is the other element of this contest that all sides know was/will be crucial. Rishi Sunak campaigned on a short list of issues that polled well individually, but that was against a backdrop of a government that had failed to deliver on some of them; NHS waiting lists, stopping the boats. Labour knows it has to deliver. It has to try to start doing that quickly.

For any leader, chief executive, or organisation grappling with that, the first thing to do is define delivery, manage expectations, and then find the quick wins. Delivering more nurses, police officers, and teachers, planning law reform, and vocational skills shake-up all takes time. Some of those require a lot of money. Others require structural change. None of that comes quickly.

Delivering quickly could focus on the retail politics; energy bills, the cost of insurance, some symbolic new laws. Maybe Prime Minister Starmer is bold and decides the much-rumoured tax increases – beyond the few they committed to in the manifesto - must come now. We’ll see.

So, did Labour win? Did the Conservatives lose? Did Ed Davey do too much paddle-boarding?

Whatever narrative you opt for, one thing is very clear on day one of the new government: Labour was laser-focused in its messaging, and it underpinned the victory. But delivery is the cast iron test. So within hours, Keir Starmer, his new senior ministers and advisors must act on those quick deliverables. They must define what delivering on the really big things looks like; how long will it take to get that 2.5% GDP growth he eventually revealed to ITV last week. How long will it take to shake up the planning system. Could you define what delivery looks like?

Then – obviously – deliver it.