Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and ‘the vision thing’

If Sir Keir Starmer ever feels “the hand of history on his shoulder”, it will most likely be a hand holding him back. He captains a mutinous crew who seem to imagine it is 1917 and they are trying to capture the naval fortress of Kronstadt, instead of the hearts and minds of the British public in 2021. It is bad enough being in opposition with scant access to mass media, far worse when the best you can do is deliver your speeches to a Covid-free empty room.

It’s always said that charisma is vital for today’s leaders if they are to connect with voters. Being “charismatic” means enjoying a mutually invigorating relationship with your audience. They respond to you, feel that you are speaking for them. A mysterious process of reciprocal reinforcement takes place. Tony Blair enjoyed more than his fair share of it, and it helped him win three elections in a row. Voters believed he and New Labour wanted what they wanted, besides good public services, a good job, a nice house, a car. Their aspirations were Labour’s and he would help them succeed. There were serious efforts to tackle child poverty and public services improved. 

Boris Johnson, armed with a litany of captivating slogans — levelling up, take back control — has it too. And he too seems to chime with voters. His transgressive remarks signal he would not look down on them or accuse them of being racist. Keir Starmer commands the Chamber of the House of Commons as he once commanded the courtroom, but struggles under present circumstances to form that vital relationship with the general public. He has yet to happen on his “People’s Princess” moment and connect emotionally. 

Then there is “the vision thing” — and, of course, communicating it. There are two problems here. First, Jeremy Corbyn definitely had a vision, but it was not the vision the voting public or many in his Party shared. Second, Opposition’s most exciting big ideas tend to be taken over and fed into Government rhetoric — or simply derided. Yet these problems are also opportunities. 

Something positive has come out of the shenanigans involving Angela Rayner: a Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work. If the best the Conservative Party can manage in the Queen’s Speech is a reheated version of their own failed skills training, paid for by loans the financially insecure are unlikely to take out, then the political terrain is not entirely occupied. Upskilling is, of course, important. There is lip-service paid to creating “quality jobs” by the Government. But there is the fear that quality jobs are a distraction from quantity of jobs. They aren’t. 

Raynor will now shadow a number of ministers across departments and will have the opportunity to promote a policy of “Good Work for All”. She faces an open goal. Skills and apprentices are located in the Department for Education under the blunder-prone Gavin Williamson. Alain Catzeflis (TheArticle 8 May) described the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, Therese Coffey, as sitting “astride one of the most damaging, indifferent, dysfunctional departments of state”. And Right-wing Etonian Kwasi Kwarteng leading Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy presents a tempting target. 

The experience of Covid has changed public thinking about the value of different forms of work. And this is to Ms Rayner’s advantage. The public is now more aware of the injustice that the social and economic value of jobs bears no relationship to pay and rewards. NHS workers, social carers, bus drivers, bin men appeared in a new light as “essential workers”, some outstandingly courageous. 

Work today is more precarious than thirty years ago. Even pre-Covid, some 30 per cent of jobs were insecure. The gig economy has suffered minor setbacks but persists. Many of the millions in self-employment end up with an income below the minimum wage. Elsewhere the expectation of unpaid overtime goes unchallenged. To be in work is not to get out of poverty, as ministers repeat and as those resorting to food banks illustrate. The economy suffers. Low investment, poor people management, poor pay and low productivity go together. 

Angela Rayner has a strong body of innovative thinking and research to call on. At a recent on-line St. Mary’s University conference on workers’ rights, celebrating the 130th anniversary of the first papal encyclical on the world of work, the economist Will Hutton described the growth of a particular kind of private equity company, the Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACS). Alongside the ephemeral working relationships of the gig economy, such new ephemeral forms of ownership and financing have been springing up. The actual owner of a SPAC is deliberately obscured, like that of a Panama-flagged ship. Employees literally have no idea who they are working for. More transparency is needed. There are also companies acknowledging serious social responsibility and willing to broaden their purpose beyond profit. But they are few. Labour could promise to support the growth of such initiatives by promising changes in company law.

Angela Rayner has available “The Good Work Plan”, based on a review by the respected policy strategist, Matthew Taylor, formerly head of No 10’s Policy Unit, which was commissioned by Kwasi Kwarteng’s own Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The plan was published by the May Government in December 2018, but it has gathered dust under Boris Johnson. 

Work should offer fairness, respect, team work, voice, representation, work-life balance, opportunity to develop and use skills to the full, and consideration for mental health. In short, wellbeing, sense of purpose, an overall movement from worker as Fordist automaton to a creative autonomy within the workplace with control over the work-life balance. Turning purposeful “Good Work” into a public policy objective, as an integral part of reducing unemployment, has been bruited for years but still not implemented. Put this all together and radical reform of the world of work should be par excellence Labour’s vision thing. 

The Labour Party needs to be the party identified with the Future of Work. In the fast advancing world of AI and with the push of new technologies to combat climate change, creating “Good Work” requires radical change and innovation in economic thinking across a wide front. Going to the country with a clear strategic vision for the future of work would be swimming with the tide of public concerns, would mean working with Labour’s traditional trades union backers and would appeal to youth, women, low income workers and ethnic minorities. Focusing on work avoids the false binary choice between bringing home traditional Labour voters or admitting that Labour is now a middle-class party of graduates and the big cities. 

Far from demotion, the Leader of the Opposition has given Angela Rayner the opportunity to be at the cutting edge of Labour’s renewal and fight-back as a visionary party of the future. She should seize it with both hands.

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