Empty Suit Minister Confirms Bevin a Giant

Chris McDonald calls the JLR cyber-attack a “wake-up call for industry” — but it’s a wake-up call for him.

Wake-Up Call for Who?

Chris McDonald, Labour’s so-called Minister for Industry, says the Jaguar Land Rover cyber crisis should be a “wake-up call for industry.” No, minister — it should be a wake-up call for you.

McDonald has never faced a truly challenging job. His career has been spent talking long and hard, saying little, and convincing himself that words alone can substitute for deeds. At the Materials Processing Institute, he wasn’t a trailblazer — he was a caretaker. He rebranded a declining R&D centre with public grants and loans, kept the lights on, and sold the story as innovation. Necessary? Yes. Transformative? No.

Now, with Britain’s biggest carmaker paralysed by a cyber-attack, he repeats the same trick. Soundbites over substance. “Working closely.” “Taking the lead.” “Reassure.” It’s the language of the empty suit.

But this is not a seminar. It is not a PR exercise. It is economic warfare. Jobs are on the line. Mortgages are at risk. Families are staring down uncertainty. A serious minister would stand up and say: here’s the plan, here’s the protection, here’s how we will make sure this never happens again. McDonald offers none of that.

Contrast him with Labour’s wartime leaders. Ernest Bevin, as Minister of Labour in 1940, mobilised millions for the war effort, retooled industry, and kept the nation supplied. Clement Attlee, even before becoming Prime Minister, provided steel in the spine when the country needed it most. They dealt with bombs and blockades. McDonald wilts before a cyber-attack. They gave orders that changed history. He gives interviews that change nothing.

And the timing could not be worse. Labour conference is looming. If McDonald doesn’t pull his finger out, the government risks looking uninterested in taking real leadership at the very moment the nation is crying out for it. Platitudes won’t save jobs. PowerPoint phrases won’t pay mortgages. What people need is action they can see, touch and trust.

McDonald mistakes platitudes for policy. He confuses presence with purpose. He thinks a neatly pressed suit and a managerial smile will hide the absence of leadership. They don’t. They expose it.

Starmer cannot afford to look like he’s surrounding himself with ministers who deliver soundbites instead of solutions. If McDonald continues to play the part of the empty suit, it won’t just reflect badly on him. It will reflect badly on Labour itself.