With a general election – and the prospect of forming a government – now firmly on the horizon, the Labour party has no shortage of long-standing policies that it is quickly seeking to recast, review or revoke entirely.
Sir Keir Starmer’s earlier pledges to abolish tuition fees, increase taxes on higher earners and scrap the two-child benefit cap have all been unceremoniously dumped. Other commitments, such as a £28 billion per annum ‘Green Prosperity Plan’, have been significantly watered-down, while proposals for a tax raid on US tech giants have shifted to a wider review of business rates.
This is, in many ways, a natural and prudent process for a party that – for the first time in more than a decade – is seriously contemplating actually having to implement its commitments. In strained economic circumstances, the Labour party is determined not to write policy cheques it cannot cash. Yet this zest for revising the party’s prospectus is, it seems, not limited to expensive policies alone.
In recent months Starmer has not shown himself particularly enamoured with devolved decision making either.
Significant changes to devolution – often branded as ‘a radical rewiring’ of the UK – had been a central part of Starmer’s platform. In December 2022, former prime minister Gordon Brown published his long-awaited review of the UK’s constitutional position, which included plans to considerably extend the scope of the current devolution settlement.
While there were inevitable frustrations with the process of Brown’s report (Starmer’s office returned an early draft saying it was too long, only to have it refiled days later with further additions), the current Labour leader was generally enthusiastic about his predecessor’s contribution.
After all, success in Scotland was – and remains – vital to Starmer’s chances of reaching No. 10, and it was felt Brown’s report gave Labour an opportunity to recover ground from the SNP by opposing both independence but also the status quo. Starmer heralded many of Brown’s proposals, which are currently being reviewed for inclusion in the party’s manifesto, suggesting they showed a Labour government would bring about ‘real economic empowerment for our devolved government, the mayors, and local authorities’.
Fast forward to today, however, and that has all changed. Quite unpredictably, the SNP has imploded almost entirely of its own volition, largely negating the need for Labour to try and buy off Scottish voters with more devolved powers.
The resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, the police investigation into the SNP’s finances and the general incompetence of Humza Yousaf have all pegged the nationalists back and pushed Labour closer to the lead in Scotland. Earlier this month, Labour won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election with a swing of more than 20 percent from the SNP – a prospect unthinkable when Brown first published his report. Such a rapid and unexpected change in the electoral landscape could naturally prompt a rethink of the need to ‘radically rewire’ the UK. And there is growing evidence such a rethink is already underway.
The shadow secretary of state for Scotland, Ian Murray, recently rejected the notion a Labour government at Westminster would devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament, arguing the Scottish Government needs to ‘use the powers it has got’ rather than demand more.
Equally, in recent months Starmer has not shown himself particularly enamoured with devolved decision making either. The Labour leader’s response to the Ulez shambles, which cost his party victory in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, has been to castigate and overrule his devolved mayor, recently branding the policy ‘disproportionate’. So, while both statements might be sensible politics, neither seems to indicate a party that remains determined to ‘radically rewire’ the UK.
With the SNP facing an electoral abyss, they will undoubtedly attempt to weaponise this subtle volte face and try and cast themselves as the defenders of devolution. Yet given the nationalists’ current difficulties, it seems unlikely this will work. But it nevertheless remains the case that Labour’s commitment to further devolution – like so many other Labour policies – is still far from a settled issue ahead of the coming general election.
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