Tories Offer Advice to Labour on Navigating Leadership Contests

But MPs fed up with his floundering leadership insist nothing could be worse than letting him limp into the next election. A shadow race to replace Starmer is in full swing, with Manchester mayor Andy Burnham expected to launch a leadership bid if he wins a high-stakes by-election on June 18.

Still bearing the scars after their own leadership carousel careered out of control, Conservatives have thoughts.

Ready, set, go

The first nugget of advice: Avoid swapping leaders wherever possible. The second? Strap in.

Labour figures need to “fasten their seatbelts and be prepared for something of a rollercoaster ride,” said Wendy Morton, chief whip to Liz Truss, who was prime minister for less than two tumultuous months.

If there does end up being a contest, candidates must not indulge in character assassination, Tories warn. “You can have arguments about policies, but personal attacks make it very hard to work together afterwards and can’t be unsaid,” said another former chief whip, granted anonymity on condition like others in this article to speak about internal party matters.

Conservative barbs during the period of prime-ministerial swapping included a suggestion being child-free could make someone a worse leader — as well as accusations of cowardice, and snipes about people’s appearances. Candidates must rein in allies who go rogue with briefings against opponents, to make clear it’s not the official position, the former chief whip said.

Have a plan, and unify around it

Whoever ends up winning would do well to have a plan for government, Tories argue. And, fingers crossed, one that doesn’t collapse the markets.

Gavin Barwell, who was the top aide to Theresa May until she resigned amid the Brexit impasse in 2019, said the subsequent leadership treadmill moved so fast that the willing replacements weren’t prepared for office.

“You end up trying to build the airplane while you’re flying it,” he said. Instead, contenders need a full policy plan for their first 100 days in office and a team to implement it, he suggested.

Numerous Conservatives advise that once a leadership campaign is finished, the squabbling needs to stop.

“In the various camps, you have the jubilant victors, the humiliated defeated and the original loyalists who never thought the previous leader should have been ousted,” said Beatrice Timpson, a former aide to both Truss and the next prime minister in line Rishi Sunak. “For most, those clanships will have become a visceral part of each MP’s identity and subsequent events will usually only reinforce the tribal lines.”

As such, the new leader must be the first mover when it comes to handing out olive branches after the fight. Again, Truss delivered an expert lesson in how not to do it.

“Liz Truss put literally nobody in her government who hadn’t supported her leadership campaign,” said the former chief whip quoted above. “So the Conservative parliamentary party turned into a government of people who had backed her, and everybody else. If you do that it leaves a camp of people who will set out their alternative stalls, and the leadership contest will continue.”

The former No. 10 aide advised the next Labour leader: “Don’t humiliate people. Always treat them with respect. Even if you beat them.” Timpson, noting that the personal mandate of a new leader will be “written in sand,” said a Starmer replacement must “listen closest to those MPs who attacked them most vociferously; it is their hostility that is the most important to neutralize.”

Remember to count

Tories advise being sure to appoint a good chief whip — one who brings MPs into the tent to get them onside, rather than wielding threats. The person must be close to the prime minister and able to warn them when MPs will never accept a proposal.

“A good chief whip will soothe damaged egos, iron out tensions and, critically, infiltrate the factions to always be in the know about what’s going on,” said Timpson, who now works at comms consultancy Sanctuary Counsel.

But a new leader can’t delegate their backbench management wholesale to the whips’ office, nor fall back on posting the odd message in WhatsApp group chats to keep their troops on side. It was after a crushing defeat over welfare that Starmer realized it might be a good idea to build better relations with his own MPs. Since then, he’s tried harder to make them feel listened to.

The chief whip must, however, be prepared to crack down on genuine bad behaviour, Tories argue. That’s easier when the leader follows the rules, as Boris Johnson found out.

Johnson whipped his MPs to support wrongdoing colleagues, and made them defend him through damning incidents relating to donations, lockdown parties and No.10 HR. The final straw was his handling of sexual misconduct allegations about a colleague, after which ministers mobilized to force him out.

“The person at the top has to set high standards and remove people who don’t meet them — but also stick to those high standards themselves,” said the former chief whip. “That’s what did for Boris Johnson. He would say one thing and do another, and send people out to defend the indefensible.”

Don’t get hooked on regicide

Standards, factions and agendas aside, at some point MPs must accept fate under a leader.

“The main thing is, don’t get into the habit of regicides,” said the former No.10 adviser. That means MPs should avoid becoming addicted to the sudden interest reporters take in their views when a leadership crisis is raging.

“Labour MPs need to understand it can’t happen over and over again,” said the former chief whip. “They have to accept the next leader is the person who takes them into the next election, even if they end up not being very good. At some point you need the mindset to make whatever the current situation is work.”

But the best route to ensuring MPs settle is simple: Be good.

Politicians are fickle. They will back whoever can command sufficient confidence among the public to help retain their seats at the next election. “The wounds are healed by success,” Barwell said. “And success comes from getting it right with the voters.”

As the Conservative carnival between 2016 and 2024 shows, that’s much easier said than done.