Preparing for government - How the official opposition should ready itself for power

Parliamentary work must be done without the civil service support enjoyed by the government; there is also the need to ‘win back’ the electorate, possibly involving a rebrand of the party; and the party, and particularly the shadow cabinet, must maintain a constant media presence to critique the government and demonstrate progress in the polls, all while coming under pressure to explain what they. [...] It then turns to the four main areas of such preparation that any opposition should focus on at this stage of the electoral cycle – and puts them in context for Labour: making the most of access talks; the process of developing policy in opposition; understanding the government system it might inherit; and preparing shadow ministers and political advisers for the scale of the shift to government. [...] The length of this period is in the gift of the incoming government, and the time is used for intensive discussions with the Public Service, Canada’s civil service, stress-testing the practicalities and costs of the policy platform, discussing the need for machinery of government changes, and constructing the ‘mandate letters’, which are issued to newly appointed ministers. [...] Coalition government cuts led to the number of civil service full-time equivalent (FTE) roles falling to the lowest level since the Second World War by the time of the EU referendum, followed by a 27% growth in the civil service between the referendum and 2022.8 On top of this, the past two years have seen the highest levels of civil service staff turnover, made up of leavers and inter-departmenta. [...] Figures for FCDO before the merger of FCO and DfID are the sum of the figures for the two component departments; the same applies for BEIS before the merger of BIS and DECC.