Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I think the electorate is more concerned about all the errors and u-turns this government has made in the last year which are affecting their day to day lives, rather than its achievements.

Frequently when being interviewed, government ministers cite the 35,000 illegal immigrants that have been deported in the last year. We often see footage of those arriving on the small boats, if these numbers are correct, wouldn't it be a boost to the Government's credibility if these deportations were also shown on the news/social media. Is their PR team missing a trick?

Alistair Campbell or anyone similar would be a disaster, it is rare to listen to someone as out of touch as he is.

Matthew Doyle, who was the Downing Street Director of Communications, stepped down in March 2025 (I wonder why???)

Not sure who has replaced him.

Hopefully they’ve got someone creative, intelligent, brave & proactive!

I don’t know who it is but my partner ( who tells me what’s happening news wise given that I can’t watch or listen to the news these days; it’s all too horrible) said that Labour had taken on someone to help with communication.

Thanks Mamie.

You bet me to it - I was just about to post the very same

Dorisdodar

Is there any extra money for the free school meals or is it coming out of the existing school budget?

The DFE has set aside £1bn to fund the change until 2029.

What do you mean by Reform folk?

Is there any extra money for the free school meals or is it coming out of the existing school budget?

Communication is where I’m really frustrated with Labour.

Kevin Maguire’s list of their year one achievements is impressive … and true. It’s not populist claptrap! Yet how many ordinary people can name even a few of the achievements on that list?

I’m a member of the LP and, as such, receive regular emails about what’s going on. However, they’re preaching to the converted. They need to communicate with everyone! They need to be proactive with their messaging.

If I was their comms advisor, on the anniversary of their first year in office, I’d have billboards and adverts plastered with the words of Maguire’s article e.g. “Imagine if we had a government that … All these have been achieved in Year One of Labour”.

Yes, the media would criticise it but so what! Starmer needs to stop caring about what the media says, and just accept that they hate Labour. Ignore the media! Be brave! Lead your own narrative!

Everyone in this country should be celebrating the fact that 500,000 more children are receiving free school meals. Does anyone know🤷‍♀️

Shout about it from the rooftops Labour📣📣📣

It's weird how some people are not always able to join the dots.
Reform would reduce crime. Good plan, but how does he propose to do that, when a significant number of Reform folk already have their own criminal convictions?

Alistair Campbell?
Alistair Campbell would do wonders for spreading information. ??

Certainly good at spreading information but how could you possibly trust him?

Farage, as eazybee said, tells the public what it wants to hear. I laughed out loud when I heard him state Reform would reduce crime by 50%, sentence people who have committed three serious offences to life imprisonment and of course, stop the boats. It was like Arabian Nights, tell three fantastical stories each morning.

Yes the government is doing some excellent work. Its comms continue to be dreadful - why?

eazybee

Nigel Farage appeals because he tells the public what they want to hear. He is addressing their prime concerns, immigration, rising debt, increase in welfare spending, and 'wokery', interpret that how you will. He is also a demagogue, able to stir the crowd up , but unlikely to be able to deliver on his promises.

This is the malaise that affected the Tories, and Labour are now experiencing the same difficulty; they cannot deliver what they promised because they created false expectations.

Creating a narrative appealing to the electorate is what Farage is doing; Labour needs to deliver results and at present Wes Streeting appears to be the only Minister who has a grasp on this. What support he will receive as he struggles with the BMA remains to be seen.

Your first sentence is spot on eazybee. Farage lies. People who are looking for easy answers and who don’t want to face the parlous state the UK has got itself into and what needs to be done to sort it out, which will inevitably be painful for us all, buy into his lies.

An Alistair Campbell type figure - or even Alistair Campbell himself would do wonders for spreading information on what Labour has done in the last year. And they have done a fair bit as listed by Lizzie earlier.

I agree with Lizzie (and Kevin McGuire’s analysis), and also that Starmer needs to have a much better Comms team in place. Their PR has been atrocious from the start, whilst populist charlatans like Farage use slogans that are latched onto by the hard of thinking who don’t seem to notice that he never tells us how he will achieve his promises.

It’s frightening. It’s no secret that I don’t share the Tory political philosophy, but at least I know what it is, and understand that if more people are more interested in individual prosperity than collective security then democracy dictates that that’s the way we will be governed.

I have yet to meet anyone who can begin to explain what Reform stands for (outside of the facile ‘stop the boats’) and can give even a tenuous explanation of how they will achieve it. Whatever ‘it’ might be.

Nigel Farage appeals because he tells the public what they want to hear. He is addressing their prime concerns, immigration, rising debt, increase in welfare spending, and 'wokery', interpret that how you will. He is also a demagogue, able to stir the crowd up , but unlikely to be able to deliver on his promises.

This is the malaise that affected the Tories, and Labour are now experiencing the same difficulty; they cannot deliver what they promised because they created false expectations.

Creating a narrative appealing to the electorate is what Farage is doing; Labour needs to deliver results and at present Wes Streeting appears to be the only Minister who has a grasp on this. What support he will receive as he struggles with the BMA remains to be seen.

MaizieD

If Labour doesn't rearrange a few deckchairs soon they will sink with the tories...

I fear you are right MaizieD though it's perhaps not so much the deckchairs needing shuffling but some better political judgment and a capacity to create a narrative appealing to the electorate. If not then Farage will enter No. 10, possibly in coalition.

MaizieD

I'm afraid Labour's achievements are minimal and are affecting fewer people than those who wanted change.
Look at the nonsensical refusal to nationalise the failing water companies, deregulating finance when we all know what happened last time. Refusal to lift the 2 child benefit cap, keeping children in poverty. Inability to do anything about excessive charges for energy. Refusal to implement progressive taxation for the wealthy, apart from a few gestures, such as VAT on private schools. And didn't they row back on taxing non doms?

They're very disappointing. and nowhere near 'socialist'

Then again MaizieD, this from Kevin Maguire in The Mirror:

“Imagine if we had a UK Government reviving an ailing NHS, raising the minimum wage well above inflation, introducing breakfast clubs and giving free school meals to 500,000 more children.

One that was devising much improved new job rights, planning a huge house-building drive, bringing a fragmented rail industry back into public ownership, overseeing a green energy revolution to safeguard supplies and prices while investing heavily to guarantee steel production in Scunthorpe and Port Talbot.

Ministers committed to opening centres in every local authority to give all kids a better start in life and, finally, negotiate and implement concrete plans to deter and deal with small boat crossings where Rwanda failed expensively and disastrously.

A Cabinet consigning dinosaur Tory hereditary peers to the dustbin of history and a Prime Minister resetting relations with the rest of Europe to boost trade and avoid long passport queues.

You’d not be an excessively enthusiastic Pollyanna should you recognise that we have that UK Government but you’d also not be alone if you’d need to be Miss Marple to detect it.”

The more we criticise this government, the more we push people towards Reform. I’m not suggesting we don’t hold Labour to account but let’s be even handed and recognise what they’ve achieved in just one year!

Farage is 'clickbait' and keeps the ratings high. That counts for programmers.

vegansrock

Why oh why does Farage get so much media coverage? The Lib Dem’s have 10xs more MPs , Greens have the same plus more councillors, would that they got the same attention.

Maybe because they are ineffective , not a credible Government in people's minds. Lib Dems got fewer votes than for Reform, but because of FPP, got more seats.

LizzieDrip

vegansrock

Why oh why does Farage get so much media coverage? The Lib Dem’s have 10xs more MPs , Greens have the same plus more councillors, would that they got the same attention.

Because it’s in the economic interests of the right wing, wealthy media oligarchs to promote Reform.

They have always promoted the Tories but see Reform as a better bet now.

At all costs the media elite do not want progressive parties, who might increase taxes for the wealthy etc, to succeed.

So, get Nigel on TV at every opportunity; get his views on everything; plaster his comments across newspaper front pages … make the electorate believe he’s far more credible than he actually is.

Propaganda … it works!

To a point. The media will get cold feet on Reform before the election if the Tories can get their act together, because as well as protecting their own interests they have a morbid fear of the unknown.. they won’t go for flaky if the alternative is safety.

I'm afraid Labour's achievements are minimal and are affecting fewer people than those who wanted change.
Look at the nonsensical refusal to nationalise the failing water companies, deregulating finance when we all know what happened last time. Refusal to lift the 2 child benefit cap, keeping children in poverty. Inability to do anything about excessive charges for energy. Refusal to implement progressive taxation for the wealthy, apart from a few gestures, such as VAT on private schools. And didn't they row back on taxing non doms?

They're very disappointing. and nowhere near 'socialist'

LizzieDrip Labour needs a decent comms team to get its message over including its achievements since coming to power.

MaizieD

I find myself in the very strange position of agreeing with both ronib and FGT

But I think so many people are disgusted by Reform that more progressive parties may have the edge.

I think, though, to avoid dominance by Reform Labour has to up its game and stop trying to be more right wing than the right or it has to introduce PR...

I agree MaizieD and others.

Labour needs to step up. It also needs to start shouting about the good things it’s done during its first year - which hardly anyone knows about.

The media will never sing Labour’s praises (surely Starmer knows that) so Labour needs to do it themselves!