Starmer must do more than rearrange advisers to reverse Labour’s fortunes

It’s a reasonable guess that few people – even counting those with some interest in politics – know who Jenny Chapman is. Or was, rather, as she is being moved from her role as “director of politics” in the leader of the opposition’s office to one of a much more conventional, policy-oriented character, as the shadow Brexit minister to Lord (David) Frost.

Chapman has already been elevated to the peerage in readiness, and it’s obviously an important role, consistent with Sir Keir Starmer’s estimation of her. An MP since 2010, she served as Starmer’s junior Brexit shadow minister in the Corbyn years, despite attempts to depose Corbyn and more or less open contempt towards the left. She lost her Darlington seat in the 2019 general election. She was a natural choice to run Starmer’s leadership campaign, and thence his office.

As the wife of another Labour MP (Nick Smith), she is what you might call a political animal: well connected, powerful, and close and loyal to her boss, in the tradition of Marcia Falkender (Wilson), Peter Mandelson (Kinnock), Alastair Campbell (Blair), Damian McBride (Brown), and Seumas Milne and Karie Murphy (Corbyn). All had the ear of their leader, whatever their job title. However, with one thing and another – not least the loss of the Hartlepool by-election – and continuing tensions with others close to Starmer, she has been moved out of the “kitchen cabinet”.

Reports suggest that the botched sacking of Angela Rayner from her old job in charge of campaigns was the responsibility of Chapman, which would make her working with Rayner in the Cabinet Office, or on the Brexit brief, a bit tricky. Some also blamed Chapman for the choice of an apparently sub-optimal candidate for the Hartlepool seat – a non-local “Remainer” – though whether a different personality would have made a difference is debatable. At any rate, she’s moved on, as part of a slow-motion reshuffle of the leader’s team.

Nor is Chapman alone. Starmer’s communications director Ben Nunn is also leaving, while Nunn’s deputy, Paul Ovenden, is moving on for personal rather than political reasons. More happily, perhaps, another close Starmer associate – chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – is going to focus on election preparations, alongside Labour’s general secretary David Evans. The highly experienced and insightful Deborah Mattinson, an expert on polling and voter behaviour, will soon be in place as director of strategy. Labour MP Conor McGinn has been made deputy national campaign coordinator, reporting to Shabana Mahmood, and he may in due course widen his role too. Carolyn Harris, a Swansea MP and Starmer’s parliamentary aide, has also been given a new role, after supposedly spreading tittle-tattle about Rayner.

What does this tell us? First, it seems to betoken a lack of drive and purpose at the top, because if everything was going great there’d be no need for any changes, and those bickering around Starmer would just get on with it. As a previous leader said, leading the Labour Party is like riding a bicycle – lose momentum and the wobbling starts.

These movements of obscure apparatchiks also show that the present Labour leader’s office is just as incestuous, factional and unstable as that of any of his predecessors – or, indeed, the set-up in 10 Downing Street under Boris Johnson. When things go well, of course personal relationships and rivalries (usually) hardly matter at all; though the permanent frictions between allies of Blair and Brown, when New Labour dominated the political scene, were a notable exception to that. The uneasy TB-GB partnership does, though, highlight what can go wrong when ego gets in the way of a sense of mission and shared purpose.

This is probably the standout feature and lesson of the whole of the first year (and more) of the Starmer leadership: that there is no explicit “project” for his party that Starmer is set upon, no “New Labour” journey or Corbynista fervour; just some quite grey managerialism, and dutiful competence. Of course, that has been sorely missing in the last few years, but it is never enough. Starmer hasn’t yet inspired his party or excited the voters. He takes full responsibility for his failings, he says, but that’s only fair because some of it must be his own fault, with some of the blame fairly going to advisers who’ve made misjudgements.

Yet a party cannot be led to reform and victory if it doesn’t wish to be, and it’s not clear that it does. This has not helped Starmer command the loyalty, respect and support of some of the bigger beasts roaming around him (notably Rayner and Lisa Nandy, if the rumours are to be believed). The left remains disaffected, and Corbyn, still, suspended. All this has led to some demoralisation and electoral disappointments – though often exaggerated, and the successes ignored – and a bit of a sense of drift and division.

Starmer needs trusted, competent advisers who can give him the benefit of smart analysis and will tell him the truth. However, he also needs a party behind him that knows where it is going and why – and is also up for the fight. Everywhere Starmer looks, there are doubts and doubters. His problems extend far beyond his inner circle. If he loses Batley and Spen on 1 July, he’ll need to do more than rearrange his advisers again.