Citizens’ assemblies could work wonders for Labour and Britain – but only if they’re more than a talking shop

Rich Wilson | July 16th, 2024 | Originally published in The Guardian

Keir Starmer has made it clear he will govern for everyone, “country first, party second”. This is the kind of thing all new prime ministers say on the steps of Downing Street, but I sense that with Starmer it’s different. At some point in Labour’s first 100 days, I think the leadership will announce a major citizens’ assembly for the UK. His staff have been visiting the team behind the Irish citizens’ assembly, which created new political mandates on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. If Labour gets this right, it could be the key to galvanising the nation around its manifesto commitments.

Citizens’ assemblies are groups of people selected by lottery, much like jury service. They are demographically representative of the place in question, and they can help build consensus around divisive issues, and inform the public of policy nuances in areas where there is likely to be resistance and misinformation. They can also build solidarity between people, and give citizens a stake in political change. This is particularly relevant in areas such as health and net zero, on which communities can become divided at implementation. Just look at the conversation around vaccines, for instance, or the anti-Ulez protests.

We also know citizens’ assemblies almost always make better decisions than politicians, partly because they are not seeking reelection, aren’t victims of lobbying, and have a formal process to make sure participants understand the issue. This is not the first time a Labour government has sought help from citizens’ forums. You might remember the the People’s Panel – the Big Conversation commissioned under the Tony Blair government, or the many citizens’ juries and summits of the Gordon Brown years. Many of these were run by Deborah Mattinson, Starmer’s head of strategy.

When Mattinson was running these assemblies, I was the director of a national public participation charity called Involve, and we led a lot of this work for the government. Citizens’ juries and summits were organised to discuss the “tough” issues of the day, such as health, climate and pensions. At each event, citizens worked incredibly hard to generate some excellent proposals, but their impact on policy was limited. We asked special advisers and ministers why this was the case, and the answer was simple: these deliberative processes didn’t provide the government with a mandate to act. They had neither the profile nor the power to help politicians make potentially unpopular decisions.

By contrast, consider the French and British climate assemblies. The French climate assembly was initiated by Emmanuel Macron as a government chamber in its own right, and he famously said he would implement its recommendations “sans filtre”. The assembly took place in the Palais d’Iena in Paris, with massive photos of the citizens pinned to the building. It was a huge media event, and 70% of the adult population were aware of it. It proposed a radical agenda, including bringing ecocide into law, and provided the mandate for policies such as limiting domestic flights and prohibiting adverts for products that emit the most greenhouse gases. Its effects were like a defibrillator jolting the political space into life.

Now compare that with the UK’s climate assembly, which took place next to the motorway in the Birmingham Park Regis hotel in 2020. Despite having David Attenborough in attendance, the event was barely noticed by the general public. Although the assembly was commissioned by six select committees of the House of Commons, no cabinet members committed to listening to its recommendations, let alone acting upon them. Despite six weekends of citizen deliberations, and outstanding work by its organisers, it has sunk from the public mind with little trace.

The reasons the citizens’ juries and summits of the last Labour government failed to influence policy is because they were effectively low-profile focus groups, and they were too closely associated with the Labour party to build the broad support needed to catalyse change. The genius of the Irish citizens’ assembly is that it transcends party lines, and has become an accepted part of government apparatus, whoever leads the government.

To tackle these problems, Starmer should announce an independent and permanent citizens’ assembly that everyone in the UK could be selected for, and everyone in the country could participate in. It should have the status and powers of a royal commission, such as the ability to subpoena witnesses, take evidence under oath, request documents, and do all of this on the assumption that the government of the day will implement its proposals unless ministers have a very good justification not to. There should also be a system for the citizens themselves to set the agenda.

Although the people who participate in citizens’ assemblies often find the experience beneficial, the number of citizens who participate is low. The Global Citizens’ Assembly, now being launched as a permanent body, is overcoming this by using a website that anyone can use to run their own satellite assembly. The results of these are then added to a portal to influence the overall conclusions of the main assembly.

The government should do the same: encouraging people to run their own satellite assemblies in community groups, charities, councils, companies and faith groups. It could be an annual fixture of citizenship in schools. Then millions of people would be part of the assembly, providing a tangible mechanism for Starmer’s promise on the steps of Downing Street to “invite you all to join this government of service”.

This is about more than tackling tough issues. Citizens assemblies cut to the heart of who we are as a nation. Our economy is broken and our social fabric has been torn. We long for human connection and respect. But healing doesn’t just happen. We need to rediscover who we are, imagine what we want and remember that we do, in fact, love our neighbours, even if we disagree about Brexit. A major citizens’ assembly to which we are all invited could do that. In a quiet way, with little fuss, Labour would demonstrate how it is putting country before party, helping us heal the wounds of the past decade, while giving itself a decent shot at delivering its manifesto commitments. That really would be a new politics.