Does the public want reheated Blairism?

To understand the political journey of Sir Keir Starmer, look to Liz Kendall. This week the Blairite and one-time leadership contender was put in charge of Labour’s welfare reform policy. Her promotion has upset the party’s left-wingers, who already think Starmer is too right-wing on welfare. ‘She’ll be more hard-line than Jonathan Ashworth,’ says one shadow minister in reference to her predecessor. But her real influence started well before she was given a place at Starmer’s shadow cabinet table.

 Kendall’s role in the 2015 contest was to speak hard truths following the party’s defeat under Ed Miliband. As Jeremy Corbyn called for a ‘wide debate’ and Andy Burnham wooed the unions, Kendall defended Harriet Harman, then acting leader, when she said she would not oppose some government welfare cuts, including the cap on household benefit income. Kendall told her party to ditch the ‘fantasy’ that the British electorate had moved to the left and said she would not prioritise reducing university fees. In the end, her party wasn’t ready to hear her message. A rival campaign accused her of being part of the ‘Taliban New Labour’ and she won just 4.5 per cent of the membership vote.

Her campaign director at the time was Morgan McSweeney, who is now Starmer’s most influential aide, shaping campaign priorities and enforcing message discipline ahead of next year’s election. The Liz-for-leader press operation was aided by Matthew Doyle, former press adviser to Tony Blair, who is now Starmer’s director of communications. All three learnt first-hand the difficulty of doing too much, too soon. The return of Kendall to the front bench shows that a New Labour restoration, one that has taken time and patience, has entered its final stages.