As the dust slowly settles on the Autumn Budget – historic for all the wrong reasons – Rachel Reeves and other members of the Government have been doing the round to defend the content. Meanwhile journalists, experts and opposition politicians alike are dissecting the details. Much to the dismay of the Government, the OBR accidentally released its report on the Autumn Budget 30 minutes before Reeves rose to speak.
The short clip of Reeves receiving the news on the frontbench shows someone silently seething as she realises that the moment has slipped from her hands. Before she had uttered a word, the narrative had escaped the Government’s control and entered the public domain for dissection. As the Chancellor prepared to set the tone, journalists were already working through the OBR’s conclusions and shaping the headlines that would follow.
The private sector is no stranger to incidents like this, whether its major redundancy plans being leaked before staff are told or the news that a CEO is stepping down, before the messaging and positioning statements have been prepared. In every case, the same outcome: loss of control, loss of authority and an impression of disorganisation.
The Budget story now has two protagonists: potentially unpopular policy decisions, and the OBR’s mistake, which ultimately answers to the Government. The damage is clear.
When this happens, there is only one viable path: acknowledge failure, apologise, investigate and make sure it doesn’t happen again. All of which sums up the approach the OBR has taken.
The better strategy, of course, is prevention. Keep information tightly controlled. Reduce circulation to a need-to-know basis. Where possible, move more quickly. The longer something remains a secret, the greater the chance it leaks. Of course, easier said than done when you’re the OBR.
Before the Budget, we laid out some clear principles for managing potentially unpopular announcements, these were:
- Control the narrative, or someone else will
- Without a vision, there is no forgiveness
- Meet people where they are
On the very first principle, the Government has stumbled. The OBR leak ensured the narrative was shaped elsewhere and ahead of schedule (though there were some attempts to bolster the message). The carefully timed announcement of JP Morgan’s new headquarters in Canary Wharf even gave some credence to the pro-growth message Reeves spoke about.
On principle two, there is a deeper question about consistency of the vision after the Budget. In our previous article we argued that a clear and cohesive vision that resonates with people is essential to galvanising public support, particularly for difficult decisions. As this has been lacking, any policy decisions, such as ending the two-child benefit cap, raises questions about coherence. If it’s the right thing to do now, why wasn’t it the right thing to do a year ago?
All-in-all, in relation to the actual content, the Autumn Budget could have gone worse for Rachel Reeves; though it could have gone a lot better had the right communications programme been in place.
To read our full thoughts on the Government communications approach in the run up to the Budget, see here.
