Morning Call: I vow to thee, my country

Keir Starmer publishes his pledge card.

Freddie

Good morning. Labour’s five missions have become six. More below.

Then, David Gauke makes the argument that defections to Labour signal a political realignment.

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Last year, a senior aide told me that Labour’s five national missions would eventually be “funnelled” into short, sharp, snappy pledges. Today is the day: Labour has released its “first steps for change”. Each step corresponds with one of the missions. These are bitesize versions, more wieldy on the doorstep. To save me typing them out, here’s the billboard you might soon see on a road near you:

The thinking here is clear. Many in Labour have been concerned for a while that the mission language is abstract and irrelevant to most people’s lives. Achieving the highest GDP per capita growth in the G7, for instance, is not the type of policy voters hanker for in the pub. The missions have gone through a distillation process designed to answer the question: what would Labour do?

These “first steps” clearly hark back to New Labour’s pledge card in 1997, which promised policies such as reducing class sizes to below 30, not raising taxes and more money for the NHS. Starmer’s senior aide Peter Hyman, who worked under New Labour and was a speechwriter for Tony Blair, has taken the lead on Starmer’s missions. The attempt to reassure the public over the economy and crime is a common feature to both. But there are differences: Labour’s soft left is happy that Great British Energy – a public energy company – is included, a policy Blair would probably have rejected as too statist.

But hang on, why are there six pledges when there are five missions? Immigration, in a word. Labour has added a “Border Security Command”, at number three. Which suggests the party recognises that its position on immigration is a vulnerability, because public concern is rising. Some insiders have been saying this for over a year. And Labour clearly wants voters to hear that “they get it”. Note that housing is not on the pledge card. This is yet another sign that immigration is becoming a major political issue once again.

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Freddie’s picks

Andrew writes in his column this week that Labour’s key challenge is to overhaul how government works.

Kara Kennedy defends that red painting of the King.

The Labour vibe shift: our intriguing leader in this week’s magazine.

Tech titans make laughably bad philosophers, writes James Marriott (Times).

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Do Tory defections to Labour herald a realignment?

David

Conservatives are switching to Labour. Evidently, a significant proportion of Tory voters are switching to Labour (as every opinion poll tells us) but also Tory politicians.

The defection of an MP from one main party to another is rare. There have only been eight since a young Winston Churchill moved from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904 but three in this parliament alone (Christian Wakeford, Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke). It is not just current MPs. Some commentators were struck by the sight of Nick Boles, an influential minister under David Cameron, introducing Rachel Reeves before her speech on the economy last week. Other former ministers – such as Claire Perry O’Neill and Anna Soubry – have said that they will vote Labour at the next election.

Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

All of this is helpful to Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. It sends a signal to the public that even staunch Tories think that Labour has changed, while also demoralising the remaining Conservatives. Some might argue that it signals a wider realignment of politics with moderates abandoning the Tories and finding a comfortable home in a changed Labour Party.

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