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From attack dogs to ministers

Relief for Miliband as his plans to appoint shadow ministers get the nod but there are tough decisions ahead for the Labour leader.

Relief for Miliband as his plans to appoint shadow ministers get the nod but there are tough decisions ahead for the Labour leader.

Ed Miliband must have breathed a sigh of relief when the Parliamentary Labour Party endorsed his plans to end elections to the Shadow Cabinet even though he still has to get them through the party conference in the autumn. Having personal control as Leader over the composition of the shadow team would strike most people as common sense and a strengthening of the leader’s authority. This should certainly be the case but there are still challenges. Though Miliband may not choose to reshuffle his team now, the onus will  be on him to ensure he thinks carefully about the challenges of building his team in the years to come. Open to scrutiny At least when others chose your team for you, you cannot be accused of favouritism. Now that it’s up to you, every appointment will be scrutinised for signs of what this means for the likely policy direction of the party and whether particular factions, and people, are in the ascendancy or decline. That is the stuff of politics and why choosing a Shadow Cabinet bears little resemblance to choosing a management team in, for example, a private sector company. There are, however, some factors which Ed Miliband might like to bear in mind as he looks ahead to choosing the team of his making. First, it’s not just about having the best people but having the best people for the job in hand. The best Shadow Cabinet to provide the most effective opposition may not, in its entirety, be the best team to form a Cabinet in government. As our report on Transitions noted, attack dogs have real value in Opposition but different qualities are required in government. There should therefore be no presumption that the shadow team which fights a general election will, if the party is successful, be the team which forms the government. This does, of course, have to be balanced against the considerable and proven benefits of continuity which can flow from shadows who have mastered their briefs progressing into office. These complex factors  place a heavy responsibility on the Leader to balance the attitudes, skills, knowledge and capabilities needed. This can be a crucial factor for a new minister, but not always if the policy understanding is undermined by a lack of ministerial skills as outlined in our report on ministers. Team work Another key attribute is the ability to operate as a team player. Strong personalities go hand in glove with effective politicians but this needs to be assessed against the importance, particularly as an election nears, of developing and projecting a unified approach to policy direction. This was something the last Labour administration failed to do, with devastating results. And the Conservative Opposition policy plans before 2010 too often relied on personal views which were shared with Permanent Secretaries but not with shadow colleagues. Preparing for the front bench But the best team in the world will not perform to maximum effectiveness if it is not fully prepared for the challenges of opposition and government. This does not apply just to shadow cabinets but also to shadow teams many of whom may not even have been in Parliament very long, and have no experience of government.  As our recent report on 'The Challenges of Being a Minister' recommends the Opposition should be putting work in hand now to ensure their teams have a deep understanding of how governments, the civil service and departments work and interact, how policy is made and how it is most effectively scrutinised. This also applies to the Coalition to properly prepare backbenchers who may become ministers during the course of this parliament. This is just a simple way of ensuring government and prospective governments work better.

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Institute for Government

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