Without passing a control test you lose faith government will be able to improve your life or public services, control borders, tackle climate change, keep country safe. Control underpins it all; people want to know the government is able to do what they elected them to do
It’s why I think making a virtue of not having an ideology or “Starmerism” is a mistake – particularly for Starmer, people are fairly or not, don’t know what he believes or think he doesn’t; and polling clear that people now think Labour didn’t tell the truth when coming to power
That doesn’t mean you have to have some bombasticly rigid approach, but a clear North Star that the public get and can see how it will benefit them. Every day improvements, respect for contribution, govt in service – stuff that was set out pre election would help govt now
One of my criticisms of this Starmer government is that they don’t act like a government that won a majority of 174 last year, the epitaph so far is a government in office but not in power.