How Keir Starmer's ‘Plan for Change' became the slogan of choice
What links a ban on Manchester City and Chelsea hooligans travelling to the Club World Cup in the US and a nature reserve in Kent?
They are all part of the government's 'Plan for Change' — the slogan that is inserted into every government announcement, press release and mentioned as many times as possible in media interviews by ministers.
All government departments and agencies have been instructed to include a mention of how every announcement they make is part of the plan, regardless of how tenuous the link is.
So when the Home Office announced it was banning troublemaking fans of City and Chelsea from attending the Club World Cup, it was all part of the government's 'Plan for Change to cut down on crime and make our streets safer'.
When Mary Creagh, the minister for nature, announced last week a new national nature reserve in Kent, home to 'species including Man and Lady orchids, the Maidstone mining bee and Hazel dormouse and skylarks', she said it was 'in line with our Plan for Change'.
Other announcements claiming to be part of the plan include a scheme to digitise the registration of deaths, an announcement on the use of computer evidence in court, a new programme to help maternity staff better identify signs of distress in babies during labour and AI sensors on fridges and kettles that will help vulnerable people to live independently.
The phrase has become so central to Downing Street's communication strategy that at one point this year, it ran a leaderboard scoring ministers on how many times they could manage to fit 'Plan for Change' into interviews.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, won the challenge with 16 mentions in a single ten-minute interview on Today on Radio 4 in January.
The phrase has even been adopted by government officials, who are usually shielded from political phrases to maintain their neutrality.
At a Home Office briefing in April, one official — who had worked on the previous government's Rwanda policy — used the phrase ten times within an eight-minute period.
So why is Downing Street so obsessed with cramming in 'Plan for Change' in every nook and cranny of government communications?
It all stems from focus groups and polling organised by Starmer's political strategist, Morgan McSweeney, that informed the prime minister's key speech in December that set out six 'milestones' that he wants the voting public to measure his government against at the next election.
They are: putting more money in the pockets of working people, building 1.5 million homes, treating 92 per cent of NHS patients within 18 weeks, recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police officers, ensuring three quarters of five-year-olds are school-ready and having 95 per cent clean power by 2030.
There was concern that the public was unsure of what Starmer stood for and was not crediting his government with changes of policy or direction. The public was also feared to be not separating Starmer's government from the record of previous Conservative administrations.
Once members of the public were told that specific policies or announcements were part of a 'Plan for Change' under Labour, they started to give Starmer's government more credit, according to the results from the focus groups and polls.
That led to Downing Street's communications team instructing all of the government's special advisers (spads) — the political aides to ministers — to ensure every announcement was accompanied by the slogan.
The message came in one of the weekly hour-long ' spad school ' sessions held on Thursday afternoons in No 10.
A government aide said: 'The slogan did very well in focus groups because it gives reassurance to members of the public that the government knows what it's doing and has a plan to change the country.
'We were told to put it in every single press notice, every quote and encourage our ministers to say it in broadcast rounds.'
However, other political aides are more sceptical and said the test of whether it is working will be following the spending review on June 11, when Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will set out the government's spending plans for the next three years — from 2026 until 2029, when the next general election will probably be held.
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