When did ‘Comms’ become a dirty word for the left?

Credit Charlie Clift

Communication. It’s something we all do. Some of us are worse at it than others and as a man living on the Autistic spectrum this is often a painful truth for me. Despite being a ‘communications professional’ the very basic realities of maintaining eye contact and not making any conversational faux pas can be a struggle, or at least something I have to think about. Despite this, it hasn’t stopped me working in Political Communications and managing the comms, press and media affairs of the Chair of the Labour Party and a Shadow Cabinet Member. I like to think my professional skillset is enhanced by the fact that I’ve grown up being conscious of how to (or how not to) communicate in every single encounter I’ve had with another human beings.

It wasn’t until I left my employment in Parliament and joined the Charity sector that I started writing about the errors I believed The Labour Party had made in recent years. It was then that I realised that to many on the ‘left’, my professional background was not viewed in a favourable light, to put it mildly.

When it came to me sharing my views and personal opinions on the messages I had helped to disseminate during my time working with the Labour Party, it became clear to me that my association with the Corbyn project was not the problem. What was more of an issue to those who were critical of my views was my profession. My twitter DMs and my email inbox were filled with messages from some Labour members and mostly former Labour members who had left the party to join breakaway movements and groups on the left. Most the insults centred around being a ‘typical comms’ person (I’ll save you the expletives) and therefore my views were irrelevant. I found this language fascinating as it not only stripped me of all my humanity, making it much easier for people who disagreed with me to attack me, but it also created a false narrative about my background, my life and my experiences.

I received messages about my time at Oxford University, my private school education and my London-centric life of which every detail was clear because of my job in ‘comms’. There was no use trying to explain to anyone that I have never been to university, left state school aged 16, was raised by a single parent household on a council estate in North East England in the same community I now live in with my partner, both of us proud to be working class northerners and members of the Labour & trade union movement. None of this mattered because of one word; “Comms”. There are many things I have struggled to comprehend during my time in Politics but this really did baffle me and sadly we have seen this trend continue. So it has been a relief to hear from a wide range of Labour Party figures, MPs and Shadow Cabinet Ministers during Labour in Comms’ series of webinars just how important they all recognised communications is when it comes to Labour’s future.

I was given the opportunity, alongside Labour in Comms Co-Founder and Network Coordinator, Nabhan Malik, to host one such session with former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and naturally Communication played a big part in our discussion. John made several observations that really spoke to the issue of ‘comms’ becoming a dirty word to some on the left. He talked about his time at the Great London Council throughout the 1980s and early 90s and how communications were deemed so essential by himself and several of his colleagues, that they established a media monitoring unit and other PR and Public Affairs teams. This belief in the importance of communicating a message effectively is something John said he carried into Parliament and eventually into LOTO alongside his long-time friend Jeremy Corbyn. By his own admission, not all of his comms-related ambitions were recognised during his time as Shadow Chancellor, but hearing that his view has not changed on the importance of communications moving forward was reassuring. He also stressed the importance of working with professional agencies, both when it comes to communications, media & press management but also for services including polling and election strategies. This mistrust of professionals in the world of media and communications has grown in prevalence within certain circles of the left but it was reassuring to hear John’s support for the Labour Party working alongside professionals to realise our ambitions.

The world of Comms is diverse, as is well demonstrated by our Labour in Communications Champions and writing all of those who work in this field off as ‘privileged’ or ‘elite’ is as narrowminded as it is ignorant. As somebody who has never lived in London and never wishes to do so, working remotely has played a huge part in my ability to work in comms, now for a national Charity. But without these technological advancements and the open-mindedness of certain employers I would face the same situation many of my friends face in the North East, employment opportunities limited by location. I feel incredibly lucky to be where I am today, but if the Labour Party wants to communicate with both communications professionals and young people across the country, our message cannot be that working hard to forge a career in comms, media or PR as a working-class person is shameful. Stifling ambition and mocking social mobility is not the business of The Labour Party, it should be quite the opposite.

James Matthewson
Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust