Keir Starmer's rebranding of Labour is a lesson for the ages

POLITICAL branding has always been more important than people think. You only have to look at the fractured state of the Tories right now to know that.

- Dylan Jones

All brands morph, and political parties are no different.

I was giving a talk about branding to Interbrand last week, discussing everything from the Evening Standard to Gucci, and unsurprisingly there was a huge amount of interest in politics, namely because things are so different to how they were five years ago — especially in the Labour Party.

The effect Sir Keir Starmer has had on his party has been transformative, and the Labour rebrand has been one of the most successful of the past five years. To rebrand a soft drink or a sneaker company, a hotel or even a newspaper, those are pretty big jobs. But rebranding a political party? How the hell do you do that? Well, Sir Keir appeared to do i t in a matter of moments. He showed but didn’t tell. He just got on with it.

If you ask Alastair Campbell what New Labour’s greatest achievement was, he’ll say getting elected. If you ask Lord Cameron a similar thing, he’ll say forming a coalition with Sir Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats.