Nigel Huddleston: Labour’s first year was defined by chaos, not ‘change’

Nigel Huddleston is Co-Chairman of the Conservative party. He is a former Financial Secretary to the Treasury and the MP for Droitwich and Evesham. 

A year ago, Labour came into office with a landslide victory on the back of a single promise, “change”.

After 14 years in opposition, they claimed to be ready and prepared to govern. They told the British people they had a plan.

A year later and the change we have seen have been nothing short of disastrous.

Unemployment is up, inflation is up, economic growth has stalled, the public finances are in a mess and small boat crossings have hit new records. A distracted Prime Minister and divided Labour Party have proven themselves completely incapable of dealing with the big issues faced by our country.

We Conservatives lost the last election because we got things wrong. We strayed too far from our values, and our core principles, and we stopped delivering on those for the British public.

We are working hard to correct those wrongs. It will take time, serious reflection and a renewed sense of purpose to regain the trust of the British people. But while we regroup and rebuild, Labour are proving day in, day out that they were never prepared to govern in the first place. One year on, the cost of their failure is being paid by every corner of this country.

I knew a Labour government would be bad, but even I didn’t expect it to be this bad, this quickly. We are now being governed by one of the most anti-business administrations in modern memory. That might not come as a shock when you consider that only one member of the Cabinet has ever run a business, and most of them have no experience at all in the private sector

Labour don’t grasp the link between growth and public services or between enterprise and prosperity and so are tangling firms in red tape and hitting them with record tax rises. The Chancellor has lost the confidence of business leaders, and lost control of the economy, and is forcing working families to pay the price of her mismanagement.

With education, we have a Secretary of State pushing forward an irresponsible Schools Bill that punishes excellence for nothing but ideological reasons.

With our farming communities, the DEFRA Secretary is set on taxing family-run farms out of existence, hammering the livelihoods of our rural communities.

On foreign policy, the Foreign Secretary has compromised our national security with a disastrous surrender of the Chagos Islands, and a £30 billion bill to the taxpayer for the humiliation of it.

At the Home Office, we see right through Labour’s lack of plans. Crime is rising, and the small boats crisis has surpassed a shocking 20,000 crossings just this year, making 2025 the worst year on record. Whilst the Conservatives have set out clear policy to tackle this through our Deportation Bill, the government sits on its hands.

Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister is on a mission to concrete over the green belt to meet housing targets that Labour have no real plan to deliver on.

The Prime Minister, once hailed as the leader of change, is now known for not having a backbone. Lurching from U-turn to U-turn, pointing fingers in every direction but his own. This last year has been a constant crisis made in Downing Street.

His botched attempt at welfare reforms is just the latest example of why he is unfit to lead. He has been forced to bend the knee to his own backbench MPs because he doesn’t have the courage or conviction to lead his own Party, let alone the country.

This is not a serious government.

But let me be absolutely clear. There is hope and there is an alternative. The Conservative Party is renewing. Under new leadership of Kemi Badenoch, we have fresh ideas and a commitment to this country’s future. We are not just holding Labour to account; we are preparing to govern again.

Keir Starmer’s instincts always put him on the wrong side until public backlash or political pressure forces yet another U-turn. It’s never about principle or evidence, just optics. Week after week, Kemi Badenoch holds Keir Starmer’s feet to the fire in PMQs, calling out his flip-flops and inconsistencies, and we have already pushed them to change course on the cruel winter fuel payment cuts and on a national inquiry into the grooming gangs.

Labour’s failure has come fast and hard. The cracks in their governance are now gaping holes. After just one year, the mask has slipped. Behind the promises and press releases lies a party utterly unprepared for the real challenges this country faces. It is clear that Britain simply cannot afford Labour.

The Conservative Party will be ready to lead, ready to rebuild and ready to deliver the kind of real change this country truly deserves.

While Keir Starmer tries to spin himself out of the chaos caused by his own failures as Prime Minister, Kemi Badenoch leads our party with truth and conviction.

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