With a new Prime Minister, a new Secretary of State for Transport, and (of course) a new monarch, the prospect of a change of government in Westminster feels rather more distant than it did during the dying days of Boris Johnson’s premiership this summer.
But the Conservatives have ranked in second place in every opinion poll in 2022 - and are now more than halfway through the maximum five-year term they secured following Johnson’s landslide victory in December 2019. After four terms of Conservative administration, the prospect of the next government being Labour-led appears more of a possibility.
If Liz Truss holds out until the latest possible dissolution date, which would leave us with an election in January 2025, Britain’s railways could be in a very different state to today.
Great British Railways, the new ‘guiding mind’ for the railways, absorbs functions from Network Rail, the Department for Transport, and the Rail Delivery Group. Franchising will be history, with the majority of train operating companies operated under the concession model. It also seems likely that more will follow the trajectory of Southeastern, Northern and LNER, and be returned to public sector operation.
But having shifted to unequivocal support for public ownership under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s policy for the railways has recently been thrown into disarray. Although party leader Sir Keir Starmer initially committed to “common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water”, he has now said that the COVID-19 pandemic means his leadership campaign policy package of “ten pledges” no longer stands. Mail, energy and water, at least, are considered too expensive to return to state hands.
Pressed on this issue on July 25, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC’s Today programme that public ownership of key utilities “just doesn’t stack up against our fiscal rules”.
But following a backlash from party colleagues and rail unions, the party briefed journalists that Reeves had not heard the mention of ‘rail’ in the interviewer’s question - and that Labour’s policy was still to take rail services back into public operation. A spokesman said there was a “positive role for rail in public ownership”.
However, just as clarity appeared to have been restored, Starmer himself muddied the waters. Asked at a press conference about Reeves’ comments, he told journalists: “I take a pragmatic approach rather than an ideological one, I agree with what Rachel Reeves said this morning.”
Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh then hit back, tweeting: “Labour is committed to public ownership of rail”.
Starmer then gave an interview to the Daily Mirror, apparently in order to clarify support for public operation of passenger services. But instead, he advocated for the status quo, stating: “Rail is probably different from the others because so much of our rail is already in public ownership. That is what I mean about not being ideological about it. Pragmatically, that is the situation, and it’s going to be the situation for some time to come.”
Now, a few months after this rather unfortunate day for policy co-ordination, the dust has settled somewhat. As this issue of RailReview went to press, Labour’s autumn conference was likely to reaffirm support for public operation, and the ‘opposition White Paper’ setting out the blueprint for this (developed by Andy McDonald, who served as Shadow Transport Secretary under Corbyn), remains on the party website.
Despite Starmer’s suggestion that the current arrangements are “going to be the situation for some time to come”, the party’s press office eventually clarified that it is still Labour policy to “bring our railways into public ownership as contracts with existing operators expire/as franchises end”.
A senior Labour source says that the Mirror interview was not about defending and extending the current system, but rather acknowledging that some of the work had already been done.
