Comparing Keir Starmer's first months to Tony Blair's reveals PM's shocking lack of ideas

Before this year’s general election, Labour MPs and strategists would tell you earnestly about their “Ming Vase Strategy”. It referenced comments made by the Roy Jenkins about Tony Blair in the run-up to the 1997 election. Jenkins said that Blair resembled a man carrying a priceless Ming vase across a highly polished floor.

Keir Starmer’s experience since the election highlights the dangers of mistaking a well-turned phrase for a genuine political strategy.

Once Blair was in Downing Street, the Ming vase was locked away and quickly forgotten. What followed was a deluge of big-ticket reforms, including the independence of the Bank of England, the creation of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, the Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information, the Sure Start Programme – the list went on.

Tony Blair was cautious during the 1997 general election campaign, but brought in several big ticket reforms within months of winning power (Picture: Tom Stoddart Archive/Hulton Archive) | Getty Images

B minus for Starmer

As the Starmer government staggers towards the end of its first six months in office, it all looks rather different. On the last day before the Christmas recess, the Prime Minister came along to parliament to have his homework marked by the chairs of the various select committees.

It felt a bit like a group of teachers expressing collective disappointment that a pupil who had looked so promising was, in his strongest subjects, turning in a series of B minuses.

The similarities between Blair and Starmer are obvious – a large Labour majority coming in after losing four elections and a period of internecine strife – but it is the differences that are more significant.

Government by accountants

Starmer has an economist as his Chancellor. Blair had Gordon Brown – a politician who happened to be good at economics. Blair (or, at least, Brown) had a clear and detailed vision of what he wanted to achieve.

Starmer, by contrast, finds himself in government with very little idea of what to do with it. Lacking a series of big changes to announce, ministers were despatched to their departments to do an audit. The feeling in Whitehall was less like a coming revolution and more like the arrival of KPMG. Wait for the Budget and say nothing seems to have been the edict from Treasury.

The few big announcements that were allowed through the net were lacking in definition and any immediate impact. Beyond the fact that it will be headquartered in Aberdeen, does anyone really know what GB Energy is going to do?

Time to call Gordon

Like nature, the media abhors a vacuum and so instead of a summer spent shaping the agenda, we had a summer where the government was defined by stories about freebies for ministers and the ending of a universal winter fuel allowance for pensioners.

As a result, the Budget, when it did eventually come, brought little relief. The increase in National Insurance contributions, coupled with other measures, has had a chilling effect on business confidence while changes to inheritance tax for farmers has brought their temperature closer to boiling point.

If anyone in Number Ten still has Gordon Brown’s number in their phone, then it might be a good idea to use it.

Alistair Carmichael is the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland