Man on a mission - will the British electorate choose to accept it?
This article is by our Director of Public Affairs, Gerry McFall. You can email him here.
In politics, five is the magic number these days. The Prime Minister set out his ‘five priorities’ for 2023 in early January and today in Manchester, Sir Keir Starmer set out his ‘five missions’ that would topple the ‘rogue nation’ that Britain has become under 13 years of a Conservative government. 13 years of stagnant economic growth and chronically underfunded public services as he put it. In 1997 the five missions were known as five pledges, famously in the form of a card that would fit in a wallet or a purse - will Sir Keir’s version do the trick?
Defining the mission
Labour effectively launched its General Election campaign today. Starmer’s diagnosis is that the current modus operandi of governing is reactive and focussed too much on the short term (most would agree!), and as currently configured the state can't rise to the scale of the challenges we face. His five ‘mission-oriented’ objectives are a pitch to realign the direction and manner in how to achieve economic growth to the centre of the political discussion at the next general election. The ‘missions’ are:
Secure the highest sustained growth in the G7
Make Britain a clean energy superpower
Build an NHS fit for the future
Make Britain’s streets safe; and
Break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage
Present today were Starmer’s key lieutenants - the ‘Impossible Mission Force (IMF)’, in the form of 1) Rachel Reeves (good jobs and increased productivity throughout the isles), 2) Ed Miliband (climate change & net zero), 3) Yevette Cooper (crime prevention & police reform), 4) Wes Streeting (health and social care reform) and 5) Bridget Philipson (reform of childcare & raising educational standards) - all tasked with delivering mission-critical areas.
New thinking, or echoes of Professor Mariana Mazzucato?
Sir Keir Starmer called this new thinking, perhaps it is for a politician, but much of the thinking reflects Professor Mariana Mazzucato’s work and her book: Mission economy: a moonshot guide to changing capitalism. She argues for reinvigorating the role of government and the apparatus of the state requiring vision, ambition and public purpose in economic strategy to confront complex policy challenges. Rather than President John F. Kennedy's grand ambition of putting a man on the moon, today Keir’s ambitions are very much terrestrial with a fragmented social contract, stagnant economic growth, a failing health service and appallingly low prosecution rates.
What does Mazzucato prescribe?
Mazzucato 1) vision and a strong sense of purpose. Starmer’s response was a government organised around a shared vision with new structures and ways of working to facilitate collaboration with delivery-focused cross-cutting mission boards.
Mazzucato 2) risk-taking and innovation. Cue Starmer, focusing on the ends, with flexibility and innovation on the means. In practical terms for Starmer, this equates to what he described as “taking a different mindset that says we are prepared to do whatever it takes to deliver results the country needs, creating the conditions for innovation to thrive and technology to be harnessed for the public good.”
Mazzucato 3) transparency, outcomes-based budgets and long-term horizons. Starmer’s response, injecting more accountability into government, that could see “new statutory obligations to report to Parliament on progress and requiring departments and providers to publish the measures and data against which success will be judged.”
Sir Keir is clearly a fan of Professor Mazzucato, and why not? Her books on the role of the state in innovation and growth are well-researched and thought out. Starmer's speech was peppered with references to Mazucatto’s research around organisational dynamism, cross-sectoral collaboration and dynamic public-private partnerships in the public good.
A bit more detail wouldn’t have gone a miss!
Opposition can be limiting as it is difficult to frame your fiscal objectives, the media and Conservative attack lines would be relentless if Labour were to commit to specific spending proposals. However, a number of the UK’s issues are regulatory, bureaucratic and cultural rather than requiring vast new sums to solve. To his credit, Keir’s speech was future looking, considered, reflective and in fairness Starmer genuinely tried to frame the debate about how any potential future government led by him would govern.
Who wouldn’t buy into the lofty ambition of securing the highest standard of living in the G7? However, If you can’t sketch out how you would practically do it, it’s all motherhood and apple pie. The speech could have at least referenced the policy levers and the specific tools at hand to achieve that lofty ambition.
Housing, if it is not a mission, is it not a priority?
Starmer misstepped on housing, not a mention of it in today’s speech, merely a cursory reference to streamlining a cumbersome planning system. Home ownership, a central tenet of the Conservative brand, has been diminished by Conservative back bench NIMBY-ism on mandatory housing targets and building on greenfield sites during the passage of the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill making slow progress through Parliament.
At his party conference last September, Starmer set a target for 70% home ownership and Lisa Nandy stated that “council housing, council housing, council housing” will be the mantra of a Labour government. If it is the mantra, why is it not a mission?
The challenge of the housing crisis is daunting and a report published this week by the Centre for Cities shows that the UK has a shortfall of 4.3 million homes compared to the average EU country. On the current trajectory, to clear that backlog would take 50 years and require a 15 per cent boost to the total number of homes. Voters relate to this issue, it’s an aspirational issue and one and the Labour campaign machine should be hammering home (pun intended) at every opportunity, not to mention it suggests message discipline and shifting sands of policy thinking.
What to read to get up to speed?
Starmer made big promises today in reforming the role of government. Practically, how all this will be done in difficult economic circumstances where other governments have failed is another matter. For those wanting to understand how a potential Labour government will organise the machinery of government, how it will function and partner with business and the third sector then do yourself a favour and buy one or two of Professor Mazzucato’s books.
