What can the industry expect from Keir Starmer’s new Labour government and its approach to communications? Weber Shandwick Manchester's Sophie Poston looks at the lessons from the election campaign and Labour's first few days in Government.
Unable to rely on the devoted support from newspaper editors afforded to a sequence of Conservative campaigns and governments, the Labour Party diversified its communications across channels – outspending its opponents on both Meta and Google.
Restoring trust and demonstrating that his government is getting on with the job are key comms objectives.
The tone of online content differed wildly from party to party. This POLITICO Influence newsletter from John Johnston – featuring analysis from Who Targets Me – is a brilliant read for anyone interested in respective digital approaches. Whether or not TikTok memes made a significant impact on voting preferences or turnout, most people agree that Labour got things right. Digital comms will remain a central pillar of the party’s communications strategy in government.
In fact, the comms around Keir Starmer’s preliminary days in office already look smart. His first video on Instagram as PM echoed his opening speech outside number 10, when he invited us all to “join [his] government of service”. It invited us to look under the bonnet and see what is really going on.
We can expect this open communication style to continue. Restoring trust and demonstrating that his government is getting on with the job are key comms objectives.
I’m writing this down the road from a school that has been billed by the BBC’s Faisal Islam as “Labour’s equivalent of Eton”: Parrs Wood High School in West Didsbury, Manchester, which was attended by both Lucy Powell and Lisa Nandy. With four MPs in the cabinet, Greater Manchester has the same number of seats at the cabinet table as Greater London.
Eight of Starmer’s top team both hail from the North of England and have constituencies up here (Angela Raynor, Louise Haigh, Bridget Phillipson, Jonathan Reynolds to name a few) with four more ‘adopted’ Northerners that include the UK’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
A marked shift in communication-style will follow. Pomp, ceremony, and flowery language are out. Starmer’s cabinet is no nonsense, straight talking, and direct.
Combined with the PM’s commitment to working more closely with metro mayors – the majority of which are in the North – many have high expectations for the regions’ voices to be heard. In fact, Andy Burnham is already vocal in his demands.
With just 4% of the cabinet privately educated (compared to 63% in Rish Sunak’s and 7% of the UK population as a whole) and a younger House of Commons with a record number of women and ethnic minority members, politics is more representative of the country than ever before.
A marked shift in communication-style will follow. Pomp, ceremony, and flowery language are out. Starmer’s cabinet is no nonsense, straight talking, and direct.
Other appointments from outside Westminster include businessman James Timpson as prisons minister; human rights lawyer Richard Hermer as attorney general; and former chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance, now science minister.
They have been selected for their acumen and record of delivery, but their experience will also inform the way they communicate.
Vallance proved he could translate technical and academic issues for laymen in his regular COVID-19 television presentations. Timpson’s compassionate and – for want of a better word – “human” leadership at the helm of Timpson has endeared him to prisoners, prison campaigners, and justice professionals alike. No doubt Starmer is hoping Hermer will rebuild relationships between politics and the legal profession.
In his pre-election op-ed for the Financial Times, Peter Balzagette argued that “if Britain wakes up to the potential of the creative sector, the returns will be extraordinary.” The creative sector now accounts for around 6 percent of the UK’s goods and services and employs 2.4mn people, but creative industries see only 1 percent of public investment – far less than other growth sectors.
Labour have promised to “put creativity at the heart of the curriculum” and to increase access to the arts for people from all backgrounds. As part of its overall industrial strategy, the party made a commitment to “create good jobs and accelerate growth” in film, music, gaming and other creative sectors. When and how this will be delivered remains to be seen, but the industry feels optimism.
Labour has waited 14 years to be in Downing Street and they know that what they say and how they say it is under scrutiny. They promised change and now they want to quickly show how they’re getting on with the job.
Sophie Poston is an Associate Director at Weber Shandwick, Manchester
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