Letter of the law - why legislative affairs matter to Number 10
6 min read
Nikki da Costa set up the Legislative Affairs Unit in No 10 during Theresa May’s leadership. She explains the purpose it served; and why Keir Starmer might find one of his own invaluable
With 402 MPs and a working majority of 163, it would be easy for the Prime Minister and his team to become complacent. You can imagine statements around the Cabinet table that the government should just push ahead, that the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) will “do what they’re told”, with the Chief Whip confident he “has the numbers” to swallow up even a sizeable rebellion.
What need, then, for a Legislative Affairs Unit in No 10, sitting alongside the Policy Unit? Why would Labour continue with a Theresa May 2017 innovation designed to deal with the loss of a majority, a warring PLP, and the tricky combination of securing in law our withdrawal from the European Union, alongside maintaining a domestic legislative programme? What need for the expertise Boris Johnson required to break the parliamentary deadlock, or handle tricky long-running multi-bill battles, such as those focused on the UK’s relationship with China, or abortion in Northern Ireland?
Essentially, it is because No 10 Legislative Affairs serves a strategic purpose: to nurture the prime minister’s political capital, anticipate legislative hurdles, and proactively manage the government’s agenda.
Much of government work resembles a game of whack-a-mole, but the legislative affairs function offers Labour a chance to shift to a more proactive approach; for the government to anticipate conflicts and emerging issues, and stage legislative battles on its terms.
It allows No 10 to focus more on what it wants to, rather than battles that it failed to anticipate.
It helps the communications team and the whips’ office by giving them advanced notice of political problems, helping them to plan. And it signals to MPs that the Prime Minister cares about the demands that are placed on them, and that he knows that difficult votes can be won and yet wound MPs. While the government, in theory, could afford to burn 80 MPs on every vote, a blasé approach will deeply wound the Labour MPs with a majority of less than 5,000, all of whom will fear being one-term MPs and intensely dislike being cannon fodder.
The director can work closely with the vital Parliamentary Business and Legislation Secretariat in the Cabinet Office who manage the primary and secondary legislative programme, helping to wade in when departments are bickering over how to resolve a cross-cutting issue on a bill.
When the Employment Bill inevitably sees Lords amendments that split the left and right of the Labour Party, who will broker agreements between Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner? Of course the chief of staff Morgan McSweeney can do it, along with all the other things he must deal with, but does he want to be across every detail of the bill? Trying to avoid everything ending up on his desk is a key objective for a good No 10 operation.
And it will be the deeply political bills where the devil is in the detail, and where the size and expansive scope of the bills could mean something slipped in by a department trips up the government, or it allows amendments to be tabled that split the PLP.
The intense media cycle will exacerbate differences of opinion, and it is moral issues which have the most potential to cross the political divide and generate rows that will frustrate the government.
Top of my watchlist would be the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, and the Policing and Crime Bill.
There are also less obvious issues. Rachel Reeves’ Budget indicates that the government will not hit the 0.7 per cent overseas aid target by the end of the decade. The legislation was carefully crafted to allow flexibility, and for the government to provide a very broad rationale for not meeting the target, but the flexibility of the Act is being stretched to its limits. If that position becomes legally unsustainable what will the Government do? Treasury mindset hates the restriction and would rather the whole bill was repealed, even if the cost is six or more months of painful votes and debates. Who has this and other “far off” issues on their radar and will come up with options?
I arrived with the rarest of weapons – a written job description drafted by the cabinet secretary and the prime minister’s top team
And yet the calculation during the summer appears to be that the Prime Minister does not need such assistance. A natural candidate to take over under a Labour government would have been Luke Sullivan, Starmer’s political director in opposition. With over 16 years’ experience in the Labour whips’ office he has the knowledge and experience, and was widely respected. Westminster rumour suggests he was blocked by Sue Gray. Does that now change with more political grip in No 10?
It’s possible that Chief Whip Alan Campbell does not like the idea of being ‘man marked’ in No 10. Prior to 2017, all members of the cabinet, except the chief whip, were used to a private secretary and a policy unit adviser in No 10, monitoring progress in their area and generally sticking their oar in. The chief whip was trusted to get on with things; 2017 changed that. I arrived with the rarest of weapons – a written job description drafted by the cabinet secretary and the prime minister’s top team, to “contextualise the advice of the business managers”. A role designed for conflict when chief whips become risk averse and just want to win the vote in front of them.
But the way to overcome that is to choose someone the chief whip can work with and will respect. It cannot be a deferential relationship but it should be a respectful one. And an experienced operator like Campbell will know that he and his team are ill-placed to do the detailed policy work that smooths a difficult moment, and ultimately a director of legislative affairs will make his life easier.
This government, like any other, would benefit from getting upstream on problems, identifying where the attacks will come from, and stopping issues getting on to the floor of the House. I predict the unit will be re-established in full within the next six months but if it isn’t, the void will be felt.
Nikki da Costa is director of legislative affairs at Hogan Lovells. She established and led the No 10 Legislative Affairs Unit for Theresa May and Boris Johnson
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