'For once, the Labour Party outplayed the Conservative Party' | Andrew Marr | The New Statesman

Keir Starmer and his new government must show the public they can deliver.

Labour have inherited broken public services, a sputtering economy and a skeptical electorate. They have pledged to move fast and indeed Keir Starmer's early moves indicate a different type of government. But they will need to provide tangible improvements in order to carry public opinion with them.

Andrew Marr joins Hannah Barnes and Freddie Hayward on the New Statesman podcast to discuss how Starmer is already pulling important levers of power - including harnessing the local authority of metro mayors and the devolved nations - to make early progress in his "decade of national renewal".

They also discuss the election in France which saw progressive parties see off Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally - but will result in thorny coalition talks. How will this impact the UK?

Read more: Why Labour is dropping "Levelling Up"

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Andrew Marr is Political Editor for the New Statesman, and is one of the UK's most senior political journalists. He spent over 20 years at the BBC where he was Political Editor and hosted the wildly successful Andrew Marr show. He is now based in Westminster where he brings his deep experience of political reporting to his analysis of the most important events in UK politics. He also hosts Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC Radio.

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The New Statesman brings you unrivalled analysis of of the latest UK and international politics. On our YouTube channel you’ll find insight on the top news and global current affairs stories, as well as insightful interviews with politicians, advisers and leading political thinkers, to help you understand the political and economic forces shaping the world.

With regular contributions from our writers including Political Editor Andrew Marr and Hannah Barnes - host of the New Statesman podcast - we’ll help you understand the world of politics and global affairs from Westminster to Washington and beyond.

[Antipaxos_Nadja]

I don't think the last five years were particulalry stable and that was with a pretty substantial majority

[TTraveller]

There is a genuine nativity about what actually happened with the election. Voters did not “vote in” Labour! They “voted out” the Conservatives for 14 years of incompetence and endless chaos. Labour only received 33% of the vote. They had a very lacklustre campaign.

[Axx]

Labour did not out play the Tories. The Tories lost the election.

[Exanto]

The last five years in the U.K. have been particularly unstable with prime ministers replaced at fast intervals, like a pass the parcel game. Something has got to change and clearly it’s the electoral system. It’s very obvious that the new PM is already on the skids too.

[Harroi]

Where was that stability the last 14 years

[benluff]

When we had a referendum to change the voting system, which side was the Conservative Party on? They did everything they could to avoid changing to a more proportional system

[cookerobturnerxG]

As someone who is left leaning, I still want a PR system, I feel this is a left leaning society and that PR would help maintain a left leaning party in power

[blondyelowflash]

The first past the post system is just terrible.
When the majority of people are not represented it’s not a good system.

[pipoo]

The Conservatives and the Tory media campaigned vehemently against electoral reform in 2011 and told endless lies about it to the public. The fact FPTP has spectacularly worked against them because centre/centre left voters learned how to game the system by themselves and by the work it good people like Carol Vorderman is pure karma.

[DavidDavid-gcrm]

No matter what polical group.
This doesn't represent the will of the people.
This is not democracy.

[sabershenanigans]

I haven't stopped wanting PR (ideally open-list PR like they have in Slovenia) just because the Labour party won this time. Even under PR, this election would still have given us more left-of-centre (at least nominally) MPs than right-of-centre ones, and Labour would still have been the largest party in government by far, likely leading a rainbow coalition.

That would also have likely been the case at every election since 1945.

I'll quite willingly take permanent left-of-centre coalitions over rare Labour majorities as oases in a desert of default Tory governments!

[rotter]

The problem is, " the stable sense of direction" provided by Boris Johnson when he became PM was anything but, and there was no way of democratically dealing with it.

[TheRichSmyth]

Can anyone honestly say, Starmer’s current version of labour would have still won if it were up against Johnson’s version of Conservatives in 2019? This wasn’t a success story for labour or our voting system, people just wanted the Tories out at any cost.

[ChrisDolan-tqvg]

Has Marr forgot the last 5 years of Conservative government his defence of FPTP is morally bankrupt.

[sbhrichards]

FPTP gives the impression of stability.. What invariably happens is the new government have 2 - 3 years to implement most of their important policies, subject to level of their majority, then they start to think about reelection
PR allows or seems to create less extreme changes in policies as you need a wider base of support but leads to more long term policies that have greater electoral buy in.. The reality is, most of the right wing in this country, be it the chaotic corrupt tories or far right reform party just wouldn’t survive in PR.. You need compromise, collaboration and cooperation..

[FilmNerdy]

Got to disagree with Andrew here for a change. We had many parliaments where a Government with a huge majority where they have proven to be the most unstable or most destructive to our country. Johnson, 80 seat majority - worst Gov and was not stable.

I haven't heard any LibDems from members or MPs saying they now support FPTP and I suspect it will remain so. I have heard some Labour members or MPs who quietly said nothing on electoral reform or quietly supported reform now come out against it.

And the reality is, most Parties are just loose coalitions of various fractions due to those blocks unable to form a political party in their own right. It's those coalitions within those Parties that make or break a Party. And I suspect perhaps not in these 5 years but if Lab does get another 5 years those cracks will become apparent.

We need to have electoral reform to help free the Party. And remember, Labour's majority is a very very shallow majority with many tight constituencies and I can forsee a situation where Labour will still be the largest Party but might come second in terms of votes will then completely undermine democracy.

[paulsmith]

It doesn't. It's unfair and both the Tories and Labour are always in power. It's only stable because both parties are the same.

[johnking]

Politics aside - I have to say Freddie is very handsome. Just wanted to say it, as we have had six weeks of election. Time for me to speak about what matters.

[hilaryc]

I don’t know what has been particularly stable about the last 14 years. The whole things been a dangerous mess frankly. And this much vaunted voting system has failed to stop extremists gaining a power base in parliament as was always the old excuse.

[tamaliaalisjahbana]

Its not inconsistent. Labour and the Lib Dems just learnt to understand the system better and strategized far better how to win seats.