Tue 11 Jun 2024
By Paul Richards
The thing to remember about new ministers is that they are mostly human. They project confidence and ooze charisma, but behind the scenes, they are as prone to self-doubt and imposter complex as anyone else. Whatever swagger they gained through election victory is soon blunted by the exhausting realities of government.
Exhausting is the word. Ministers have come off the back of a gruelling election campaign which came months earlier than expected. Holidays were cancelled. Plans curtailed. The marathon became a sprint. Remember your minister is mostly tired, most of the time. There is no excuse for a certain brusqueness, but exhaustion can explain it.
Remember to keep your briefings brief and relevant. Stick to plain English. Do the heavy lifting, sifting, and honing of your advice so that the minister can make decisions cleanly and swiftly. Some will want a Socratic dialogue. Some will want to see your workings. Some will want to consult widely. But most will take decisions based on your advice, if they believe you’ve done the hard yards first.
Then there is culture shock. Very, very few ministers have been in Government before. Most were not even MPs when Labour was in power last time. There’s a solid smattering of former special advisers, and those with experience of dealing with government. But overall, this is a cohort of ministers who are learning on the job.
They are a talented bunch. Labour’s selection process has been the most rigorous ever, designed to create a parliamentary party which is diverse, experienced, and brimming with potential ministers. Expect to encounter some smart cookies. However, they will be experiencing culture shock as they move from opposition to government. They will be unused to working with private office, the prodigious amount of paperwork, the rhythms of committee work, parliamentary questions, departmental business, and media. In opposition, you wake up and think what shall I say? In Government, you think what shall I do?
Culture shock works both ways. Your new ministers will be different from the ones you may be used to. They have different cultural assumptions, different priorities, different approaches to getting things done. The civil service is well-versed in dealing with different ministers, given the spinning carousel since 2010. However, it is 14 years since officials worked alongside a Labour No.10, a Labour Cabinet, Labour Ministers, and Labour SPADs. Prepare to hear about the CLP, NEC, GC, Clause V meeting, NPF, and conference (never with the definite article). You need to understand the Labour Party and its structures and cultures so you can understand your minister. If you do your research, you will avoid the kind of culture clashes that litter the diaries of Crossman, Castle, and Benn.
Talking of Tony Benn, some new ministers will be suspicious. They might suspect that officials, through a kind of bureaucratic inertia, have divided loyalties. They may buy into the idea that the ‘establishment’ is there to thwart them and their plans. Officials must work hard to reassure new ministers that the Rolls Royce drives in the direction it is steered, and will not veer off-road. You need to earn trust.
It should be an exciting time. A new Prime Minister at the head of a new Cabinet. A new set of policies. A new sense of direction and energy. An opposition coming into government does not happen very often. It happened in 1979, 1997, and 2010. Now in 2024, it is happening again. There will be missteps and mistakes. There will be resignations and reshuffles. But the civil service will step up, as so often before. It will adapt with alacrity to the changed terrain. The rosette your minister wears has changed colour, but they still need time to sleep, to eat, to see friends and family, to reflect, to plan. They are mostly human.
Paul Richards is an author, writer, trainer, and a former Labour Special Adviser. He will be delivering our Political Awareness and Influencing open course on 24th July. Find out more here.
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