Most effective Labour frontbencher: Anna Turley MP, Labour Party Chair
This is Anna Turley’s second Uncut award. She was our Labour politician of the year back in 2019, another annus horriblis for Labour. Back then it was for taking on the libellous bullies of Unite and Skwawkbox, this year it is for for leading a step change in effectiveness of Labour’s attack operation. Since taking up the reins as party chair, the party has been quicker and sharper in responding to political developments.
The response to the Farage racism scandal is illustrative of the change she’s brought. The Guardian broke the story at 1500 on the 18th of November. Rather than waiting several days, hemming and hawing about what to say, the party chair was up with a quote 90 minutes later.
Labour Chair Anna Turley said: “These are disturbing allegations and it is vital that Nigel Farage now urgently explains himself.
“We have seen Farage’s weakness in the face of the divisive politics in Reform’s ranks. They are dragging our politics to a dark place”
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) November 18, 2025
It’s clear from her quote that there wasn’t a clear line from Number 10 but Anna Turley understood the importance of ensuring a Labour voice was prominent at the start of a major story cycle. So she leant as far as she could within the parameters of what was possible, to insert Labour into the conversation, without triggering blowback and diverting the course of the story (note no mention of race in the quote). The fact that the party chair had commented meant Labour MPs were empowered to pile into the attack and to be much more explicit about their views on Farage and racism. The momentum of Labour MPs’, activists and councillors commenting boosted the story, pushing it up the broadcast agenda and shifted the dynamic within Labour. By the 21st of November, the Prime Minister was criticising Farage on racism across broadcast media.
Job done. A case study in modern communications and how to manage Number 10 into active decision making. More please in the new year.
Most effective political communicator: Zohran Mamdani
Uncut consulted a reporter who travelled through Pennsylvania during the 2024 US presidential election. All the Trump posters promised Strength to tackle Prices and Borders.
A year on and prices have not fallen. Inflation persists, with wages not growing fast enough to compensate for the dramatic spike in inflation during the pandemic. Trump has also enacted policies that have added to inflation (e.g., tariffs) and acted in ways that communicate different priorities (e.g., the push for a grandiose White House rebuild).
This meant that Democrats seeking election in 2025 could successfully focus on affordability. This was the case whether Democratic candidates were centrist (e.g., Abigail Spanberger, the Governor elect of Virginia) or more left-wing (e.g., Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor elect of New York).
Uncut has also consulted one of Mike Bloomberg’s Deputy Mayors on whether Spanberger or Mamdani are the future of the Democrats. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Bloomberg’s support for Mamdani’s opponent in the New York race, this Deputy sees Spanberger’s centrism as the Democrats’ future.
Tiktok tells a different story. Here, Mamdani has 3.4 million followers. Spanberger 85,000. FDR was the president for radio, JFK for TV, Trump for Twitter. Mamdani’s Tiktok charisma helped to drive the biggest turnout in a New York Mayoral race for half a century.
Mamdani has captured the new medium of Tiktok, with old skills: relentless message discipline on affordability and easy charm. Trump’s fawning over Mamdani during a recent White House visit indicated Trump’s appreciation of Mamdani’s star quality.
This won’t, however, save Trump from deeper problems in the 2026 mid-terms, where the Democrats will hope to recapture at least the House, unless he can do much more to improve affordability over the next year than he achieved over the last. The cost-increasing provisions for health insurance contained in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill pull in the opposite direction.
The first year of Trump’s second term was extreme and concerning in many ways – including the scaling-up of ICE, the gutting of USAID, and the bombing of vessels in the Caribbean and East Pacific.
These actions all cast dark and violent clouds over America’s future. But something much brighter could emerge through the combination of Mamdani’s communication skills and policies that improve affordability and drive a capitalism that works for many more Americans than has been the case over recent decades. As Mamdani and Spanberger united around the theme of affordability in 2025, centrist and left-wing Democrats must work together for this inclusive capitalism.
Tags: affodability, Anna Turley, Nigel Farage, Racism, Uncuts, Zohran Mamdani
