The final results are in. There will be an historic, unprecedented number of brand new MP’s in the House of Commons, which will see a transfusion of nearly 400 new MP’s.
And, for those of us whose business is in the leisure industry, and whose business is impacted by Government action, legislation and fiscal and regulatory intervention, we face the unusual scenario of both the DCMS Secretary of State and their Shadow having lost their seats. Lucy Frazer in Ely lost to the Lib Dems and Thangham Debonnaire lost to the Greens.
Which means that there is a quite unexpected level of political uncertainty over this area of Government work as we move to a new Government. I am sure that most business in the Leisure and media sector will have been talking to the Government and also developing relationships with the Shadow team over the last year. But with both MP’s out of the new House of Commons, where will that leave the sector?
Many businesses will, over the last couple of years, been maintaining their relationships and developing their new ones with the Shadow team. But, there will now have to be a new set of relationships built as we will have a new Secretary of State who may well be new to the brief and a completely new set of political advisers.
Of course, the officials remain the same and that should allow for continuity of business, but there will be some frantic planning of contacts and connections this morning by businesses in this crucial sector.
This really is a major transfusion of MP’s in the House of Commons. It is perhaps the third such seismic shift in my lifetime.
In 1997, the Labour Government of Tony Blair swept in. I was at ITV at the time. There was an air of optimism around and an energy for change and new initiatives that resulted in a raft of new policies and approaches. Chris Smith was the Secretary of State, having served as Shadow in opposition. But also remember that Labour did not appoint their Shadow spokesperson as Minister for Sport. In a surprise move, Tony Banks was appointed as Minister, rather than Tom Pendry, who had held the shadow brief for years.
Then in 2010, as the Coalition Government swept in, I was on the England 2018 World Cup Bid. We completed our Bid under Labour but the government for the final stages was the Coalition. The new MP’s in 2010 were grappling to get to grips with the concept of coalition government, and also with the austerity policies that characterised the early years of the Coalition. I remember that it took a while to appoint Ministers after the 2010 Election. Firstly, it took a weekend for the Coalition to be negotiated and for the relevant departmental briefs to be agreed between the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Eventually, a whole week after the Election, Jeremy Hunt was appointed as Secretary of State and Hugh Robertson as Minister for Sport, both of whom had held the shadow briefs in opposition. That allowed for some very helpful continuity.
It remains to be seen who will be the new Secretary of State and Ministers in DCMS. But it is certainly going to keep the Public Affairs and Govt relations advisers in the sector very busy and may involve a whole new political engagement strategy to be developed. All Party Groups will need to be repopulated and new MP’s engaged.
The wonder of democracy.
