As the Labour Party launches its manifesto ahead of next month's General Election, Tony McNulty reflects on the lessons of his service in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's administrations and offers some sage advice to Labour politicians preparing to walk the corridors of power for the first time in 14 years.
The election is over. The polls were right. Labour has won and are forming the new government. Like your first few weeks at a new school – if you can remember that far back – how you behave and react in these early days will mark you out for the rest of your career. As ever in life, your decorum and comportment will be important and will inform everyone’s perceptions of you over the coming months and years. In the goldfish bowl that is Westminster this is particularly important. Treat everyone as a friend but trust no one. Encourage and respond to all calls for assistance and offers of help and always indulge the Whips. As and when you progress, which you surely will, remember that primarily your role is as a Member of Parliament. Never look down on colleagues and always look after the interests of your constituency. Be kind to people on the way up as you will surely need them on the way down – a certainty in political life.
Your downfall will come soon enough but for now, there is every chance, given the limited experiences of the new members on the Green Benches, that you will be called upon to serve. The first thing to do is not to worry – you will be in good company – historically and politically.
Few of the current Shadow Cabinet have any sustained experience of government. In fact, Starmer’s Chief of Staff, Sue Gray, has much more experience of government than any of the putative new Cabinet. Only 8 of the 31 in the current Shadow Cabinet have any ministerial experience and only three have served in Cabinet before. Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper were Cabinet ministers under Gordon Brown for barely two years and Hilary Benn served in Cabinet for a total of seven years, four under Blair and three under Brown.
But, back to you. So, you got the phone call, you have said yes, and you are now worried about that lack of experience. As you can see, you are not alone – some major players of the past have been in your position, and many have not only survived but flourished. Equally some, marked out as possessing great potential, crashed and burned into the political oblivion that ultimately awaits all politicians.
Just as you are still reflecting in the warm glow of your promotion, understand that, at least for your first post, merit had little to do with it. Any number of factors resulted in your name going forward and you and your skills had little to do with it. Remember too that, given Labour have been out of power for fourteen years, there will be a long list of first-time appointments. A list of colleagues, a list of rivals, or a list of your enemies – only time will tell.
You will also be surrounded by a range of people in positions to help. Whatever ministerial role you have just inherited, take care to make the most of it. Do not succumb to ‘Mullin-itis’! In his otherwise excellent diaries, Chris Mullin went too far in denigrating the ministerial role as often little more than ‘minister for paperclips’.
In reviewing the Diaries in 2011, I said that “Yes, ministerial roles can mean being stranded in a quagmire of impenetrable dross and endless letter-signing, but they also allow for greater influence and decision-making, and indeed, it remains, or should remain, a real privilege to serve.” Ministerial service should always be and remain a privilege. See it as just a career stepping stone and you miss the entire point of public service. Equally often, especially at a junior level, it is the way the minister does the job they have been given that ensures influence or impact. Junior ministerial roles do matter, but not everyone can go straight into Cabinet and not everyone is a star.
Any hint that you view your new role with contempt or disdain and somehow beneath you, will not be welcomed by those who matter – particularly your Secretary of State and the Prime Minister. Your most crucial ally will be the Secretary of State and they will be central to the development of your role. You will need to make sure that you get on with your Secretary of State – whether you like or respect them. Remember that whatever your role is, any issue, story or announcement of any political importance will likely be taken by the Secretary of State – and you need to encourage this. The last thing that a Secretary of State wants is a minister with sharp elbows – second only to a minister with ‘connections’ to No.10 that are just a little too close for comfort.
On my first ministerial appointment in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott told me that ‘…if you don’t know what you want to do, then don’t blame the civil servants.’ Sound advice. He followed this by saying that the one thing that he did not appreciate as a Secretary of State was surprises. He made it clear that the most unwelcome of surprises were those that came from the PM or No.10 – but could also be found closer to home.
The Permanent Secretary of your new department will pretend to be your friend, your boss, your mentor, and your close ally against the enemy - the Secretary of State. They will also try to ensure that you and your office goes through the Perm. Sec’s office to get to the Secretary of State. You should resist this at all costs. You need of course to build up trust and a positive relationship with the Permanent Secretary, but they are not your boss. Make sure in the first instance that you deal directly with the Secretary of State for all aspects of your new role – especially when agreeing the range of your duties and responsibilities. You will need to get clarity on these duties as soon as possible as they will be the key metric against which your performance will be measured.
Once you have that clarity, make sure that you get your Private Office functioning effectively. Your Private Office will ultimately be loyal to you above the Department – but only if you cultivate them and treat them with the greatest respect. Your Private Secretary will fight your corner and be your champion. The rest of the team will be organised around policy areas and the most crucial member will also be the most junior, your diary secretary. Control your diary if you want to control your life and make a difference. Preplan and discuss what goes into your diary long before the events arise. Make sure the Press Office know what you are planning to do long in advance. To be an effective minister, you need to ensure that each event in the diary meets much more than just the ‘tomorrow test’ and sometimes your ministerial life may depend on a well-organised diary. You need to understand the reason behind every entry in your diary.
Your ministerial colleagues in the Department are at once both allies and enemies. If you are lucky, your team will develop an ‘esprit de corps’ but if you are unlucky, your colleagues will seek to climb over you to advance and never look back. The key to which spirit will prevail will come from the Secretary of State – some will actively cultivate a team approach, some will simply focus entirely on themselves.
There is nothing worse than a minister who, for whatever reason, does not do their job. It will invariably reflect on the Department and that means on you so you will need to keep an eye on your colleagues. In the worst analysis, a senior minister will either not fulfil their role at all or simply cherry pick the bits they are most interested in and leave the rest to somebody else without suggesting who. In the worst scenario, the Department will assume that a senior minister is carrying out their role because superficially it looks as though they are. Only on closer inspection does it become clear that they are failing to do so, and such failure could ultimately end up at your door. So be careful.
The Special Advisers (SpAds) to your new Secretary of State will pretend to be your boss, your friend, your mentor, and your only channel to your key ally – the Secretary of State. They will also offer your protection as your most trusted ally against the real enemy - the Permanent Secretary. You will need to establish them as allies very quickly but try and deal directly with the Secretary of State. Ultimately, they work for the Secretary of State – not for the Department, not for the Government, not for the Party and certainly not for you.
The last thing you need are permanent conduits, or barriers, between you and the Secretary of State. You will need to establish a positive rapport with both the SpAds and the Secretary of State’s private office and establish a modus operandi of how you will work with them and the Secretary of State. This is worth investing time in as it will make your life much easier in the long run, but they need to understand that you are elected, and they are officials. They also need to understand that ultimately the Secretary of State is an elected politician too.
There are three types of officials that you need to develop relationships with – the parliamentary branch, private offices, and policy teams. Depending on your department’s legislative load, the parliamentary branch will be very important. It will deal with legislation, written and oral questions, adjournment debates and the general business the Department has with the Commons. As the most junior minister in the department, you will need to be alive to the department’s interface with the Commons. Given the likely size of the new PLP, that means your side and you may need to think through your engagement with the Commons and other Labour MPs.
It is shocking how few ministers remember this – your department does not need a reputation for being disinterested or disdainful of Parliament. A good relationship with the parliamentary branch and the Department’s Parliamentary Clerk will be essential for you, as will the departmental whip. Take all you interactions with the Commons and the Lords seriously.
Develop a good relationship with the private offices of each of the other ministers in the Department and with the private offices of key senior civil service officials – the Permanent Secretary, board members, and the senior management team. This will make your life much easier as and when you to have to deal with them. Remember that their interests are their immediate bosses, but they will want you to carry out your role effectively too.
The policy officials in your new department will try and establish whether or not you are an ally or not. For them, your only value is as a conduit for the advancement of their policy agenda. This will be heightened if legislation is on the agenda. Some policy officials will look after issues that are already in place and need managing, while others will be charged with the development of new policy. All will have their own favourite areas of policy they will try to pursue with the new minister. How important your department’s policy areas are to the manifesto of the incoming government will, of course, matter too.
Legislation is invariably the external face of your department to the wider world and your chance to shine in the parliamentary forum. But oral questions matters too, as do appearances before select committees and joint committees with the Lords. Good performances in the Commons may attract positive attention but one bad performance certainly will.
You may also come face to face with officials at No.10. Downing Street will have policy officials that shadow policies across government and are sometimes given to acting like ‘hired guns’ bullying junior ministers in the name of the PM. Be very wary of them as, if they are coming to you, it means they have not got what they wanted from your more senior colleagues – the Ministers of State or the Secretary of State – but think they can use you to get what they want. This also means that they will set you on a path against your Secretary of State and that way lies danger. Work with them and try to indulge them, but sup with a long spoon. They will claim to be the voice of the Prime Minister, doing the PM’s bidding and that speaking to them is as good as speaking to the PM himself. Indulge them but take care. Do not cross them but do not indulge them at the expense of your Secretary of State. When they start a sentence saying, ‘the Prime Minister wants you to …’, listen intently and then find a way to establish what is really going on. Do not assume that the PM has even heard of you, let alone marked you out for a ‘special’ task.
Find out very quickly how the departmental press office works. Get a handle on the range of media involved in your area – it will range from specialist press to more general outlets – and invariably the local media. Cultivate specialist journalists and don’t be too disappointed if the national media couldn’t care less about your role. Sometimes local TV and radio is the best way to highlight your successes – do not turn your nose up at these opportunities. Work with your departments press officers to do your job as well as you possibly can. Too often junior ministers have mistakenly considered local press, local radio, and local TV as beneath them and will only deal with nationals. Get the Press Office involved in every aspect of your role at the earliest opportunity – a ministerial visit, an announcement, a major speech – as such an investment will be more than worthwhile. Never sneer at a media opportunity and never tell the Secretary of State that you do not want to do something. Be the best ‘team player’ that you can possibly be.
So:
Above all, enjoy your role and enjoy making decisions, large and small that matter and make a difference - and were the reason you became a politician in the first place. For every one of Chris Mullin’s ‘minister for paperclips’ moments, there will be a chance to make a profound difference to people’s lives and futures – a privilege you should relish.
Dr Tony McNulty is Teaching Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He was the Labour Member of Parliament for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010 and served in various ministerial positions in Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments including two stints as Minister for London.