Labour still have to learn how to do Government.
Odd thing to say of a Government in power six months and yet transparently true. All those years in opposition, which they got very good at, and the transition to governing has not been an unalloyed success. That much even they know.
That doesn’t let Conservatives off the hook.
They still have to learn how to do opposition, and internally there are concerns they aren’t doing enough learning, quickly enough.
A quick look at Lord Ashcroft’s first focus group results of 2025, published on ConservativeHome on Tuesday, show the problem. These were Labour voters. They were most often ‘disappointed’ even disillusioned with the Government they chose, but when it came to the Conservatives, they mainly just said they hadn’t heard much from them.
It was six months ago former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith spelled out the first job of the party in opposition after a very bruising election defeat: “You have to earn the right to be heard”
Being kind about it, and I am being, they may be trying, but there’s a lot to learn in a short space of time and as our survey, recent political polling and growing media critiques are suggesting; they aren’t doing enough and haven’t earned that right, yet.
It was always going to be tough. That’s a fact.
So far, the instant defence to any Conservative criticism has been, and will be “well you did no better” or “what about your lot’s record then?”
Kemi Badenoch made it clear in her speech earlier this month that mistakes were made, and the last Government (that she and many others were part of) failed to deliver things the public wanted. Not acknowledging that was never an option.
However two points should stop this criticism holding the party back.
First, a logical truth: any failings of the last government do not invalidate criticism of the current one.
Second, the Tories’ opponents want Conservatives pinned into a corner where they can not move forward, because that suits them. They will throw the past at the present party leadership for as long as they can get away with it. Labour and Reform need the Tories to be a ‘failing opposition’, for their own ends, whether true or not.
Being bold, resilient and confident on the first point could get the party out of that second trap. And some are showing signs of making in roads. Look at our latest Shadow Cabinet League table. However recent conversations with senior Tories have rung alarm bells. One who remembers the last period of opposition told me:
“Opposition is awful. To be effective you’ve got to be relentless, hammering away at weaknesses the government will try desperately to hide. You have to seek out that spot, exploit and expose it, and then nail them publicly. I fear at the moment some of my colleagues aren’t really looking like they’re in the game yet”
This really chimed with me because before Christmas another Tory with experience of Government was looking back at dealing with Labour in opposition and said: “you know sometimes, they seemed like a pack of hounds. This constant frenzy to find literally anything to rip into was tough”
It also got me thinking about the nature of the ambush predator because I have some experience of this.
Years ago I worked in Southern Africa doing conservation work in “the bush’. I was helping a small group trying to protect and increase the population of Lycaon Pictus, or more commonly – Wild Dogs.
This much misunderstood monotypic species is an extraordinary hunter. Persistent but wildly inaccurate stories of how they hunt (biting animals until they bleed to death – they don’t) have given them something of a bad name but also hidden the secret of their real skill: coordinated, unexpected and ruthlessly effective mobile ambush.
Lions, leopards, cheetah, all have their methods, but none of them can remotely match the 9 out of 10 kill-rate of Wild Dogs. They achieve this by superb strategic herding of their prey. Working together, communicating and being resilient in pursuit then ruthlessly efficient in the execution. They do this in almost impenetrable bush that the prey uses to conceal itself.
Well they say Whitehall is a jungle!
Oppositions can learn an awful lot about earning the right to be heard by emulation of the unavoidable ambush. First you have to be actually hunting to catch something. My recent conversations suggest some MPs aren’t sure the whole Shadow Cabinet have grasped that enough.
Second you need to be patiently looking for weaknesses all the time, and to most outsiders it seems Labour has generously provided a target rich environment so there should be no excuse.
Third you need to move swiftly, strategically and with real determination, from a standing start. It’s run and hit, not hit and run.
Now Robert Jenrick is not the leader of the party. If you listen to some he’d still like to be – “he’s still heavily armed” quipped one – but in fairness to him, whether you voted for him or not, he does seem to have the instinct of the opposition ambush predator. Kemi’s team will want him to stick to hunting Labour prey, not them.
However Robert knows not everyone will like it, not everyone will think it’s the right tactic, but in terms of the job of opposition, which Labour got very good at over 14 years, that’s not so important. Finding the gap, exposing the weakness and then chasing it down so it can’t get away, is part of the job if you want to contest field and not go extinct. That instinct needs to spread across the top team.
Government, where you often find yourself with imposed and awkward vulnerabilities, is predisposed to be prey. Flushing them out of every attempt to hide their problems is a case of constant testing, relentless assessment – or sometimes leaping on the moment when blinking and confused they just stumble into the open, not realising what they just did.
This kind of attention grabbing, knock down of government opponents is part of earning that right to be heard. If some on the front bench seem still on the sidelines they must recognise this a fight that other parties will happily have if they don’t. That it’s become private chatter in the party is sign this needs fixing fast.
It’s time for some to unleash their inner Wild Dog, or sadly like them, the party will be on the endangered list.