Why Labour urgently needs to address the issue of public trust
If a week is a long time in politics, one hundred days feels like a lifetime. In reality, it is not enough time to bring about significant legislative or policy change, but those days can, if used wisely, signal a clear change of direction, new priorities, and a break with the past. In those terms, much of the past 100 days has been wasted time as far as Keir Starmer is concerned. On 8 October it was revealed that Labour’s gigantic pre-election lead in the opinion polls had collapsed to just a single point ahead of their Conservative predecessors.
The promise was there – a new government would sweep away the bad old habits and practices that had seen its predecessors mired in scandals - Greensill, Owen Paterson, and VIP lanes for mates of ministers. Labour worked hard to manage down expectations for change in key areas such as public spending and taxes before the election, but since coming to power it has missed a golden opportunity to win some cheap and easy public goodwill from supporters and sceptics alike by enacting change in how ministers and members of parliament conduct themselves.
It’s not a surprise that the press fell gleefully on any indications they could find that ‘they’re all as bad as each other’ and a Starmer government was going to be little different from a Johnson one. Week after week the headlines have been dominated by stories about luxury sunglasses and other expensive gifts that grate horribly against the experience of many voters struggling with the cost of living crisis. Sue Gray demanded, and got, more money, before being unceremoniously sacked. Lord Alli, it turned out, had a pass to 10 Downing Street.
If all of this sounds like something out of a Hogarth cartoon, that’s because it is. The one thing most people hoped for from a new government was that they would put a stop to this sort of thing and make a clean sweep of the bad habits that seemed to have become engrained in recent Tory cabinets. Keir Starmer has entirely failed to deliver on this front at the time when it was probably most critical to his future success.
In an attempt to regain some political momentum, Labour has in recent days taken to enumerating what it has done in its first hundred days – the introduction of the National Wealth Fund, the rail nationalisation bill, the Employment Rights Bill, reviving the Industrial Strategy and ending bitter, long-running disputes with train drivers and resident doctors. But the conversation that has dominated the front pages – and the story Labour has failed to get in front of – has been the topic of cronyism, gifts, and donations and the access and influence they may bring.
For the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), it has been frustrating to watch. We have been campaigning for a reform of Westminster’s lobbying laws to bring greater transparency and were encouraged by the Labour Party’s pre-election commitment to restoring public trust and taking on the issue of standards in public life through initiatives such as their proposed Ethics and Integrity Commission. Having drawn a clear line in the sand on the issue of standards – remember we were promised a “government of service” – they have spent much of their time in government watching public trust continue to decline along with their polling numbers.
Addressing public standards may not be a doorstep issue, but it does influence the view the public will have of politicians before they even open the door to them. We have long warned about the risks of failing to address public trust and the need to do so through legislation such as updating the Lobbying Act. This is a gift that is – or was - in the government’s hands, but, as they have found out, just talking about doing the right thing is not enough.
Public trust provides a licence to govern. If Keir Starmer wants his policy agenda to succeed, he needs to address urgently concerns people have about the credibility of his government first. Starting 100 days into the job is better than never, but he has nothing to gain from delaying any further.
Alastair McCapra is the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
