It was a reset designed to invigorate Keir Starmer’s premiership after flagging opinion polls, a scandal over the transport secretary and worries about the economy.
The prime minister gave a speech setting out new milestones – fleshing out the missions of his government with targets on reducing NHS waiting lists, getting named bobbies on the beat and raising living standards.
The targets are all aimed at the public, who desperately want to see material improvements in their lives after being promised “change” from 14 years of the Conservatives at the July election.
But alongside the targets, Starmer also gave the clear impression that he thinks one of the main problems frustrating change is one of process, rather than policy: roadblocks caused by the civil service.
As the Institute for Government put it afterwards: “Unusually for such a public speech, Starmer time and again returned to internal questions of process and delivery. As well as trying to emphasise the scale of the government’s ambition, he was giving the public sector – and the civil service in particular – a shake.”
Labour advisers and politicians have for months been complaining that they did not realise how difficult it was to effect change while in government. It has become a common refrain that “Jacob Rees-Mogg had a point on some things” or “Dominic Cummings was right”.
Before entering government, Starmer and his team appeared to have little interest in reshaping Whitehall beyond the idea of “mission boards” to oversee change. But that is clearly now much more squarely on the table, as No 10 seeks ways to drive through reforms. One senior government source said many options were being considered, including a beefed-up No 10 and a slimmed-down Cabinet Office, while overall numbers of civil servants would “definitely have to go down”.
Simon Case, the departing cabinet secretary, who as a Boris Johnson appointee was not loved by the new administration, could clearly see which way the wind was blowing as he gave a valedictory lecture earlier this week. He gave eight examples of “shining lights” in the civil service who exemplified best practice, but also made the case for moving with the times and necessary reform.
“Thinking ahead to the future, what I fear most is complacency and a reluctance to recognise that our unique constitutional position must be re-earned, that our continued existence relies on change as it does continuity,” he told the audience, including at least three former cabinet secretaries.
“It is unlikely to be enough to wander amiably along responding to external factors … Progress, purpose in progress is essential. The civil service needs to be viewed as an integral part of the journey ahead rather than through the rearview mirror.”
Starmer, a former civil servant himself as ex-director of public prosecutions, might not have entered office wanting to rewire the British state, but that is now exactly what he has charged his new cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, with doing. “Starmer has said he’s prepared to be unpopular to get things done, and that’s what he’s doing,” one supportive Labour MP said. “He’s saying what needs to be said.”
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With Elon Musk threatening to take on bureaucracy in Donald Trump’s US, and Nigel Farage likely to adopt similar rhetoric in the UK as he prepares to take on the incumbent parties in May’s local elections in England, Starmer may also be consciously making his own moves to pre-empt criticism of a sluggish government.
However, one of the problems for the prime minister is that bashing the civil service too publicly is unlikely to get them to achieve the best results. “He could have said he needed more from us but in a way that didn’t damage morale,” said one Whitehall insider. “This is just really damaging. We expect it of the Tories but this is a shock.”
Senior Labour sources said the prime minister had not been directing his remarks just at civil servants but at the whole operation of government. “He was making a point about Whitehall having lacked a central direction for 14 years because of all of the chopping and changing; it’s putting an end to the short-term sticking plasters,” one said. The prime minister ended up having to record a television clip on Friday to make it clear that he did indeed value the work of civil servants, while stressing that he does “intend to drive through this reform to make sure we are delivering better for the country”.
That may be easier said than done. Numerous blueprints have been written on how to reform the civil service – most recently by David Cameron’s minister charged with enforcing change on Whitehall, Francis Maude. And many a prime minister has ultimately shied away from radical options for change – from increasing political involvement in choosing top civil servants to bulking up No 10 – often concluding that a big battle over Whitehall reform would not translate into a big reward from the electorate.
However, Starmer appears to have the appetite for the fight and to the belief that transforming the public sector is essential to helping him achieve the missions.