Brown, Blair, Miliband – the ghosts of Labour’s past can help secure its future

The Conservatives may be known as the “stupid party” but if Labour ditches Keir Starmer it will become the idiotic one. Starmer must get better but he must stay. Here’s why.

The world is at its most perilous state since the cold war. A novice in No 10 would be a disaster for Britain and make it look absurd to allies and foes alike. The economy and markets are still fragile. Transition to a new PM and chancellor would spook the markets, likely provoke a meltdown and a general election, a scenario the Cabinet Office have been gaming, and Reform, freshly emboldened by Robert Jenrick and Nadhim Zahawi will win.

A leadership election would take six months to complete, and a further six for the new team to learn the ropes: another year lost. And for what? Starmer is bright, serious, steady and at last is learning. None of the contenders are anywhere close to being prime ministerial quality: nor is there any fresh magic agenda for them to offer. It’s worse than stupid. It’s idiotic.

Something startling though needs to happen and now. One thing you learn from writing books about prime ministers is patterning. A point comes in some premierships where only a profoundly radical intervention will save the incumbent from merely bumping along the bottom, from relaunch to U-turn, in office but not in power. That point has arrived for Starmer.

Gordon Brown taking over at the fag-end of Labour’s last ascendancy made two startling moves, bringing back Peter Mandelson, which gave political stability, and civil service doyen Jeremy Heywood, who provided administrative punch. No other Labour PM has been so ignorant of political history as Starmer but he must now wise up to it and follow the recusitation strategy. 

Labour has massive talent and experience that is not being utilised. At this most precarious moment in its history, for the sake of party and country, it needs to dive deep into it. Three times since 1900 a prime minister has returned as foreign secretary, most recently David Cameron in 2023, which strengthened a government under fire. Tony Blair should come back as foreign secretary. The next three years until the general election will see foreign affairs predominate. As Rishi Sunak found, having a big beast on the world stage, well known by all key leaders, freed him to concentrate on domestic policy. Foreign issues are sucking up too much of Starmer’s time. With Blair, Britain’s standing in the world would be enhanced, with considerable diplomatic, security and economic gains.

An economic growth ministry should be split off from the Treasury, with David Miliband coming back as the secretary of state and Antonia Romeo as permanent secretary, a stellar combination. Growth and cost-of-living are the most important government goals, and it needs proven leaders to drive it. Why not invite Gordon Brown, the conscience of the Labour party, to oversee the amelioration of child poverty, or the reviving of the union and regions? With such figures on board behind Starmer, the pretenders would be left out in the cold. Will they respond positively to Starmer's plea? With Labour on its knees, my bet is they'll heed the call to come together to save the party they love. 

Whitehall and No 10 need urgent attention if Starmer’s premiership is to fly. Olly Robbins, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, needs immediately to become cabinet secretary and permanent secretary at No 10: to be a figure of corresponding significance on the domestic scene to Jonathan Powell on foreign policy. The civil service needs top-down reform, to be slimmer, smarter, brighter, AI-rich. Covid vaccine task force supremo Kate Bingham should be appointed to work with Whitehall insider Sarah Healey to execute it. The combination would be magical, to give the Whitehall the biggest transformation since the Northcote Trevelyan report of 1854 created the modern civil service.

Britain’s best prime ministers have been bold. Thatcher was when in 1981 she sacked her “wet” cabinet ministers. Many like Blair and Cameron regret not being more so. This is Starmer’s time.

If he carries on with his incrementalist approach, he will go down in history as the man who let in Reform. Be bold, as he was garotting Jeremy Corbyn, and he will be known as the moderniser of the British state and the leader who kick started prosperity and national revival.

Anthony Seldon’s book Sunak at 10 will be published later this year

Photograph by WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo