Here's what Labour should learn from Donald Trump: think bigger, think faster

The Guardian

27-01-2025

Those rapid-fire presidential executive orders did so much within so few hours that if you'd looked away briefly you'd have missed another burst of Donald Trump's assaults on America's founding freedoms. The democratic west looks on aghast at this hurricane of hostile values. And yet politicians everywhere must feel a sneaking envy. He just goes for it, does whatever he wants, as quick as a flash. Forget consultations, ignore civil servants' warnings, follow your deepest beliefs, to hell with opinion. Mad, bad, dangerous, but well, wow. What if … ?
A sense of renewed urgency and frustration pulses through the Labour cabinet, urging them to stamp down on the accelerator. You hear it when Keir Starmer speaks. You will hear it in Rachel Reeves's dash-for-growth speech on Wednesday. Asked about Trump's boosterism, she said, 'Yes, I think we do need more positivity' and that 'we've got our best days ahead of us'. I heard it in Wes Streeting's speech to the Fabian Society at the weekend, in Angela Rayner's defiance of nimbys to build, build, build, and in Ed Miliband's massive solar and wind power reforms.
Six months in power have taught them to be tougher: they know they will never get a fair hearing from enemy news machines. No, 10,000 millionaires are vanishingly unlikely to have fled the country, as has been reported. The New Statesman's digging reveals its absurd origin not in a reliable source of statistics, but a guess from a South African company selling residence and citizenship advice to the wealthy.
There is, alas, plenty of authentic bad news: growth near stagnant, job vacancies slowing, inflation still not at 2%. But bad-news bias ensures puny attention is paid to PwC's annual report, which shows Britain is now the second most attractive country for investment. Wage growth is also under-reported: it's at a six-month high, driven by the private sector. Instead, 'inflation busting' public pay is often criticised without mentioning the fact that it is still below where it was in 2010. Labour knows from Joe Biden's bitter experience that in the end what counts isn't GDP numbers but what people feel in their pockets; does their take-home pay buy more in the supermarket? That's why, for all the business outrage, taxing employers was preferable to raising the cost of living by taxing workers.
The Trump example may only subliminally spur on ministers, but this warning from the Institute for Government (IfG) confirms what they know: they are 'entering a make-or-break 12 months to demonstrate that theirs is a government that can deliver … By this time in 12 months, Labour will effectively be half way through its usable term of office, before campaigning for the next general election begins to absorb all its political bandwidth.'
Labour's gigantic majority gives it Trump-like power to be less cautious. As even modest policies cause volcanic eruptions from its foes, it may as well go further, faster: enemies have already reached the maximum level of decibels. A brash show of self-confidence may breed more confidence in voters.
It should go for European closeness now. A new YouGov poll shows a majority in every constituency backs more trade with the EU over the US, while every poll for two years has shown a majority in favour of rejoining the EU. Five years since Brexit, and with 9% lost in exports, it can ignore the Brexiters. It's good to hear Reeves, urging growth, now welcoming EU overtures to join the (too modest) Pan-Euro-Mediterranean customs framework. As any baby step is megaphoned as a 'betrayal', why not go for full customs union? Embrace the EU's youth mobility plan as it is overwhelmingly popular.
A dangerous fight? Starmer and Reeves may just as well take on attackers over the great issues. Incidentally, it is high time they made Ofcom do its job and force broadcasters such as GB News to obey the law on political even-handedness.
Once in that combative mindset, they should rebalance council tax, which is about to rise painfully: why fear noise from the better-off 30% who would lose out, when a fair revaluing of tax bands would save the pockets of the 70% less well off, and Buckingham Palace would no longer pay less than an average Hartlepool home?
Start with what is free. Build on House of Lords reform: push through Harriet Harman's bill to expel the 26 bishops and enforce stern criteria for suitability. But that is trivial compared with electoral reform: use proportional representation for the next election, with the proviso that it be reviewed by the following parliament. That's no gerrymander, since Labour benefited disgracefully under the present system. Severely curb party donations, cleansing cash from politics. Speed up the promised votes for 16-year-olds: that's not gerrymandering since the young rarely vote for incumbents.
Labour is bad at loudhailing what it does, from renters' and workers' rights to free school breakfasts, nurseries for all and the founding of Great British Railways and Great British Energy. They lack a red thread narrative, and the threat of a brutal spending review may not reassure people that 'there will be no return to austerity', as Reeves promised on Sunday. Levies on the rich and their booming wealth would be more popular than squeezed spending.
Time is short, as the IfG warns, before voters answer those election questions: do you feel better off? Is the NHS recovering? Are fewer migrants arriving in boats? Failure risks voter pessimism opening the door to Faragism. Trump told the Wall Street Journal that China's president, Xi Jinping, 'respects me' because 'he knows I'm … crazy'. Maybe Labour is ready for a micro-dot more craziness.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist