The New Popular Front (NFP) should have called on her. The Englishwoman Deborah Mattison has the recipe for obtaining a left-wing Prime Minister. This opinion pro, founder of the Britain Thinks firm and member of Keir Starmer’s inner circle of advisers since 2021, played a crucial role in Labour’s accession to 10 Downing Street. In their time, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown also liked to use her services and her “focus groups”. Across the Channel, when the left wins, it’s because Mattison is not far away.
And across the Atlantic? This week, London will send her to Washington to pass on the recipe for success to Kamala Harris. The White House is looking for an éminence grise. The Democrats were impressed by Starmer’s campaign and Mattison gave her the keys to beat Boris Johnson, she looks strong against the badly coiffed populists.
Such a back-and-forth between Democrats and Labor is a new sign of a growing desire to strengthen ties. In Washington, one of the progressive think tanks advising Kamala Harris is headed by a former aide to the British Prime Minister. “This working relationship is not new, but usually it’s the other way around!” jokes a close friend of Mattison in the British press, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Against the image of a left that is too naive
In London, Mattison had convinced Labour to put Brexit behind them and refocus their discourse on the economy, health and borders, to win back Labour voters who had been seduced by the promises of Tory Boris Johnson. It was finally enough to rely on her 2020 book, “Beyond the Red Wall”, in which she explored in depth the springs of the disenchantment between Labour and its electorate.
According to the English press, she should advise Kamala Harris to refocus her efforts on the seven “swing states” where the election will be played out and to also highlight her career as a prosecutor (like Keir Starmer before her) to display her authority and counter the image of a left that is too naive. On her way back, perhaps she could stop off in Paris?
