Public First have recently run two events for clients and friends about how manifestos get made, and how you might want to make arguments to political parties. We thought it was worth offering some highlights. 

For most organisations, the detail of policy matters. They (rightly) care about what governments do; what they don’t do; and how often they change their mind. For these organisations, manifestos are often important for a number of reasons: 

On the plus side:  

A ‘democratic mandate’ makes a big difference. If a policy is in the winning manifesto, the civil service will try much harder to implement it and the House of Lords is much less likely to oppose it. This doesn’t mean the policy will definitely happen (remember those 40 hospitals…) – but it’s much more likely. Moreover, big directional choices are usually only made in election campaigns or in spending reviews. In normal times (ha!) that only gives you 2-3 chances in a five-year period to land your big argument.  

On the flip side:  

Manifestos are risky. Even ill-conceived policies can be announced if they might win votes or even just carry the day’s media. There’s a particularly big risk where the government wants to show progress but doesn’t have money to spend. The conversation goes a bit like this: “I can regulate this area and make a big announcement without blowing a hole in my ‘election scorecard’? Great! And I can also tax – sorry, ‘levy’ – it to generate more money for tomorrow’s announcement, and the public won’t even notice? Even better!” 

So how should organisations engage with manifesto development? 

Here are our top tips: 

Know what you want and what it costs. This is often where organisations struggle most. It is vital that you are precise on what you’re asking for, and how it will fit in costing documents for two fiscally constrained parties.

Understand the electorate. Winning an election is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition to running a government. If you don’t know how your ideas will be received by the electorate and ultimately affect votes, don’t bother engaging.

Don’t try to re-invent the narrative. Political narratives will be fixed by the beginning of the campaign – if they haven’t been already. You need to figure out how your ideas fit within these existing frameworks.

Get going now. You have less time than you think. I received an absurd number of manifesto submissions in the week before going to print. If you haven’t made your case before the election is called, it’s probably too late. Especially as this is the first election since 2015 where parties (and their teams) have proper time to develop a manifesto, and they’ll want to road test everything before it goes in.

People are time poor and need help. Opposition staff are always particularly stretched and haven’t had years with a civil service to stress test ideas. They often have the most original thoughts as a result because they are talking to a wider circle of people; but you need to be constructive and help them fill in the gaps. 

Public First dedicates a lot of time to supporting organisations figure out what they want and how to explain it. Please do reach out to a member of the Public First team for a detailed discussion about how we might be able to help you in the run up to the next election.