Labour needs to give the public 'answers' if they want to win the next General Election, former No.10 strategist says

18 May 2023, 21:38 | Updated: 18 May 2023, 21:41

Former No.10 strategist urges Labour to have 'strong, clear' strategy that 'connects' with people

By Abbie Reynolds

Former Director of Communications for Sir Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, says Labour needs to better convey their policies to the electorate.

During a phone-in with Iain Dale, a caller asked the ex-comms director what Labour needs to do to win in the next General Election.

Mr Cambpell said that he and his podcast co-host Rory Stewart recently held an event where 80 per cent of the audience believed Sir Keir Starmer would be the next Prime Minister.

However when the audience was quizzed on Labour's economic policy only "one hand went up, and it turned out he was a Labour candidate".

"We asked if they knew what the five missions were and it was the same guy," he told Iain Dale.

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The ex-communications director said Labour as a party can't just have the "Tories have failed in 13 years" as their main message going into the next General Election. Instead, they should have a "real sense of what they want to do, say in the next five-ten years".

"Labour can't expect the public to imagine, they have got to come up with the answers themselves, and they've got to be clear," Mr Campbell maintained.

"Lots of the frontbench I speak to say, 'We've got loads of policies the people just don't know them yet', well that's not the people's fault," he exclaimed, "You've got to have a really strong, clear strategy and message and policy that connects with people."

Watch the full phone-in on Global Player: Alastair Campbell joins Iain Dale