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General Election Special: Carl Shoben on Communicating Purpose

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With one day to go before the General Election 2024, it is my pleasure to share with you the latest episode of the Communicating Purpose podcast with a guest who was instrumental in Labour’s communication strategy during the landslide 1997 election.

Carl Shoben, former Director of Strategy at the Labour Party, is a political strategy and communications specialist, with two decades’ experience leading campaigns for the Labour Party, NHS, and more recently for polling and research firm, Survation.

Having been a media officer during Labour’s last administration in Downing Street Early, Carl worked as a Special Adviser to Tony Blair before returning under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, overseeing the party’s polling operation during the 2019 election.

In this episode, we discussed:

– How Labour’s 1997-2010 tenure changed the communications methods used in British politics today

– The detrimental factor that cost Jeremy Corbyn’s government the 2019 election

– The fascinating shift in voting patterns and polling

– Carl’s rule for leveraging polling within communications

– How Carl took a gamble that restored public faith in an important SE London institution

You can find the episode on SpotifyApple Podcasts, or Captivate FM

John Higginson,

Founder & CEO, Higginson Strategy

John Higginson is the co-founder of Higginson Strategy. He is a former national newspaper political editor. He is the host of the Communicating Purpose podcast and editor-in-chief of Comment Central.

Interested in being a guest on the Communicating Purpose podcast? Email [email protected]

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