A taunt famously used by a friend-turned-foe against John Major is now being deployed by senior Tories against Sir Keir Starmer.
“A prime minister and chancellor who are in office but not in power,” declared shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride, reacting to the latest economic figures.
“The PM has shown he is in office but not in power,” the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in response to the Labour civil war and plotting allegations.
But the phrase “in office but not in power” is not new. It has been part of political folklore since it was first used by former Tory chancellor Norman Lamont in 1993.
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And it’s suddenly back in fashion, being used once again by top Tories. And Sir Keir’s opponents clearly believe it’s just as relevant today.
Lamont used it in a blockbuster resignation speech in the Commons after he was sacked by Major, whose Tory leadership campaign he had run less than three years earlier.
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“We give the impression of being in office but not in power,” he said in a blistering critique of the Major government from the back benches during a debate on the economy.
After middle-ranking government jobs under Margaret Thatcher, Lamont was rewarded with the Treasury for masterminding Major’s leadership election victory, but endured a torrid time as chancellor.
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He was humiliated when the pound crashed out of the EU’s exchange rate mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992 and forced to raise taxes in his March 1993 budget.
When he admitted defeat in the ERM debacle on 16 September 1992, the TV pictures showed him flanked by two little known figures back then who later rose to high office.
On one side was Gus O’Donnell, Treasury and then No. 10 press secretary and later cabinet secretary, and on the other was a callow youth who was Lamont’s special adviser, David Cameron.
Nine months later, after being sacked in May 1993 and turning down demotion to Environment Secretary, Lamont’s resignation speech was bitter and vitriolic.
In his memoirs, called simply In Office, he claimed he had previously said the identical words privately to Michael Heseltine on the steps of No. 10.
But many of his criticisms of the Major government of the 1990s in that famous speech are remarkably like those being levelled at Sir Keir Starmer’s government today.
“There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions,” he said, leading up to his famous quote.
“The government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is they are not even very good at politics and they are entering too much into policy decisions.
“As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events and not enough shaping of events.”
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Then, after the “in office but not in power” line, he continued: “Far too many decisions are made for 36 hours’ publicity.
“I believe that in politics one should decide what is right and then decide the presentation, not the other way round.
“Unless this approach is changed, the government will not survive and will not deserve to survive.”
Bad decision-making? Obsessed by opinion polls? Not good at politics? Reacting to events? Chasing headlines? Sir Keir’s critics would claim it all sounds depressingly familiar.
In fact, Major’s government survived for another four years, though he faced a leadership challenge in 1995 and the Tories were defeated in a Labour landslide in 1997.
A sacked chancellor, a leadership challenge, an election defeat. Surely history couldn’t repeat itself? Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir beware.
