If we don't change, we will lose
4 min read
Telling people we have a plan for change isn't enough. We need to show them.
Before the general election last year, Labour campaigners visited the US and learned the mistakes of the then-Joe Biden campaign first-hand.
You must fight on a political battleground of your own choosing. You need to communicate in the language of the voters and meet them where they are. We live in a political world of vibe. People can’t just be told about change, they need to feel it.
Those lessons were applied relentlessly during the campaign, but in government, we risk making the same mistakes as the Biden campaign and will suffer the same fate if we don’t change.
In that campaign, our opponents tried numerous times to shift the conversation. The Tories tried to make it about Brexit, but we focused on the NHS and public services. The SNP tried to make it about independence, but we made sure it was about getting rid of a failing Tory government and delivering for Scotland. The Labour Party dictated the terms.
Yet here we are approaching a year in government, and we are at risk of letting opponents dictate the topic and terms of the conversation.
Of course, we must tackle illegal immigration, but with 96 per cent of migration both legal and vital for the economy, if that is the main focus of a political battle, we will lose. Boats crossing the channel could disappear entirely, but if people don’t feel better off, it will make precisely zero difference, and the populist anti-immigration rhetoric I hear on the doorsteps and in my email inbox will grow.
Voters I have spoken to across the UK want the government to understand their challenges and feel we are putting money in their pockets.
Telling people you have a plan for change isn’t something they can feel, understand, or, bluntly, spend on food or electricity. Telling people we get it isn't enough. We need to show them we get it.
When we talk about the increase in the state pension, the near-universal response is that any increase is eaten up by price increases for energy and food. Just saying people should be grateful for the triple lock protection doesn’t make them feel better off.
The same applies to increases in the Minimum Wage. We tell people, but they don’t feel the difference, and if we simply wait until they do it could be too late.
On welfare, we have used the language of money instead of people. At a recent roundtable event on these reforms in my constituency, that was made abundantly clear to me.
Motive matters to voters. Why are you doing this? What is it you’re trying to achieve? What type of country is it you’re trying to create? We have failed to answer those questions, or our response is, "you’ll see.”
That makes it harder to communicate the need for reform and the positive changes included in the plans. As I said in the House of Commons last week: “A Labour model of welfare support should start from a position of considering the individual and be a system that embraces the principles of dignity, fairness and respect.” The current feeling from voters is that current plans do not achieve that.
I have written about how this government has achieved much more than it is given credit for. But paywalled articles while opponents are meeting people, creating visuals for broadcast and social media to get their simple but divisive message across, is not going to communicate the powerful, long-term changes this Labour government is making.
We must ruthlessly reapply the strategy from the general Eeection, dictating the political battlefield; having a clear vision about the country we want to create; making politics about people; showing them we understand their lives, that we will put money in their pocket; and talking to them where they are and in a language they understand.
We should create opportunities to do this.
Not through traditional “reset” moments. The public is suspicious of things like reshuffles or a single speech. For example, effectively communicating a policy change, while controversial and risky, can present the opportunity to seize the agenda if it is bold, with clear, direct language that explains a vision behind the change.
If we fail to take these steps, frustration and anger will grow, and we will see nationalist parties win, not only in England but across the UK in 2026 and beyond.
Graeme Downie is the Labour MP for Dunfermline & Dollar.
