UK

Labour consider biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades as Keir Starmer strives to deliver key manifesto pledges

Kate Devlin
Fri, 14 June 2024 at 7:10 am GMT-6·3-min read

Labour is mulling the biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades as Keir Starmer seeks to deliver on his key manifesto commitments.

The move could see the Labour leader heading up new groups designed to cut through civil service silos and delays.

Under the plans Labour could force departments to work together under ‘boards’ designed to pursue its “missions” for government, the Financial Times reports.

These missions include creating economic growth, rebuilding the NHS, investment in green energy and tackling crime.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer launches his party’s manifesto at Co-op HQ in Manchester (PA Wire)

The boards would make use of private sector expertise, in what could be seen as a controversial move, under plans reportedly being overseen by Sue Gray, the former senior Whitehall official who carried out the Partygate report into Boris Johnson.

Sir Keir has already signalled that his promises to change the country will not happen overnight. The Labour leader has consistently warned that the UK needs a decade of national renewal, as he argued his party would be the best to lead that.

And more than halfway through the campaign, Labour appears on course for a comfortable trek to Downing Street. The party remains more than 20 points ahead of the Tories in many opinion polls, after a disastrous few weeks for Rishi Sunak.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff was a top civil servant who wrote the Partygate report into Boris Johnson (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Wire)

Tom Baldwin, a former Labour communications director and Starmer’s biographer, told the FT he expected a piecemeal approach to any changes, adding: “Keir Starmer and Sue Gray tend to feel their way towards solutions. If one thing doesn’t work, they try something else and become progressively more radical, but always for pragmatic reasons.”

Alex Thomas, programme director at the Institute for Government think-tank, said: “If they went for a full-fat version, which gave missions their own budgets with a named responsible official, that would be radical — the biggest change to how the civil service and government have been organised for several decades.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, has been working for months to test the party’s policies and assess any potential pitfalls.

The Conservatives have vowed to axe 72,000 civil service jobs, but Labour has declined to match this.

Rishi Sunak has had a disastrous election campaign (Christopher Furlong/PA Wire)

Mr Sunak has had a difficult start to the election campaign.

At the weekend he faced claims he had gone into hiding after he was forced to make a grovelling apology for leaving the D-Day commemorations early to take part in a TV interview.

The Tory leader was also ridiculed for claiming his family had had to go without Sky TV when he was a child.

Reform leader Nigel Farage mocked the prime minister after a Tory candidate used pictures of him on her leaflets.

The arch-Brexiteer is plastered across the leaflets of right-wing Conservative Dame Andrea Jenkyns.

Mr Sunak, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen, and there is no reference to the Conservative Party or use of any of its branding.

Labour Party Manifesto Key Points: Keir Starmer Promises To 'Stop The Chaos' Of Tory Rule

Ned Simons
Thu, 13 June 2024

OLI SCARFF via Getty Images

Keir Starmer launched Labour’s general election manifesto on Thursday as he pledge to “change” the country if he becomes prime minister.

In keeping with Labour’s cautious approach to the campaign, there are no big headline grabbing surprises in the 133-page document.

But Starmer defended the manifesto from suggestions it was too boring to capture the imagination of voters.

“I’m running as a candidate to be prime minister, not a candidate to run a circus,” he said.
Here are some of the key points:

Anthony Devlin via Getty Images

At the core of Labour’s plan sits its “fiscal rules”. These are (1) to move the current budget into balance so day-to-day costs are met by revenues and (2) that debt must be falling as a share of the economy by the fifth year of the forecast.

A promise to cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments each week, during evenings and weekends, paid for by cracking down on tax avoidance and non-dom loopholes.

There will be 8,500 additional mental health staff recruited.

A total of 6,500 new teachers will be recruited in “key subjects” to set children up for life, work and the future, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools.

There will be 3,000 new primary school-based nurseries.

Free breakfast clubs in every primary school.



Planning reform to build 1.5 million new homes and no fault evictions will banned.

The minimum wage age bands will be scrapped so all adults are entitled to the same pay.

More neighbourhood police paid for by “ending wasteful contracts” will be hired to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Launch a new Border Security Command with hundreds of new specialist investigators and use counter-terror powers.

A publicly-owned clean power company, Great British Energy, will be created with the aim of cutting bills and boosting energy security, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

Railways will be brought into public ownership when the existing private contracts expire.

The voting age will be lowered to 16.

Members of the House of Lords will be forced to retire at 80.

Efforts will be made to “rebuild” the UK’s relationship with the EU but there is no mention of any attempt to backtrack on Brexit.

Labour will “set out the path” to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.

A Labour government will recognise a Palestinian state as “a contribution to a renewed peace process”.