Why does Labor echo Tory criticism of the civil service?

“Dominic Cummings was right”.

No one serious about their future in Labor Party politics would dare say that publicly about Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser.

But privately this sentiment comes again and again from the mouths of the most senior officials of this new government.

No, they’re not talking about Cummings’ views on Brexit or Elon Musk. They’re talking about ‘Whitehall’ – the shorthand by which the political class refers to the tangle of institutions and civil servants whose job it is to implement the government’s agenda.

In Whitehall, Cummings has long argued, “Failure is normal” Whereas “Confident public school cheater– Instead of people with real policy expertise – reign supreme.

Generations of politicians have made similar criticisms, but rarely with such independent intensity.

Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on Thursday was mainly designed to provide more clarity to a public skeptical about the direction of his government, refining the five missions he talked about in the opposition. Was done.

But the speech had a secondary purpose: to motivate Whitehall, as he accused many civil servants of being “comfortable in the lukewarm bath of managed degradation”.

When they were in opposition, many Labor figures were of the view that the Conservatives had troubled their own government through unnecessarily adversarial relations with the civil service.

Very few people talk like this anymore. A leading government adviser said, “The biggest disappointment in going into government has been the quality of the civil service.”

Another said: “Cummings analysis is where we are in many ways.”

A senior government source said: “Dominic Cummings was right about Whitehall. But I blame him and the Conservative Party for 14 years of low pay, poor leadership and low morale, which means we don’t have the right people in the right places.’

Wherever blame is being placed for Whitehall’s shortcomings, disappointment is beginning to seep into the public eye.

Peter Hyman, the Labor adviser who came along with Sir Keir’s ‘mission’ but did not follow him into government, Wrote in the New Statesman last week There were “obstacles within the state” to carrying out Starmer’s agenda.

He said it was “surprising” how many senior civil servants still relied on “disorganized cabinet committees” and old-fashioned processes.

For some in the Prime Minister’s top team, the flaws of the British state are inherent in its very structure.

A government adviser said, “10 Downing Street is a ridiculous place to run a major economy.”

“You go from a modern open plan office opposite Downing Street where you are all scattered around like children in a big house who have gone to different bedrooms to do their homework.”

Yet vague aspirations to move the Prime Minister and his team into the Cabinet Office next door and turn Downing Street into state chambers for entertaining dignitaries – yes, also previously discussed by Cummings – are likely to remain just that. Is.

“Can you imagine how much time it would take for the civil service to do that?” An officer sighed.

Many would consider this an injustice to the civil service, which often scapegoats itself for the failures of politicians but cannot answer publicly.

After all, Labor figures admit they were not as prepared to govern as they should have been. This was partly the reason for the rapid departure of Sir Keir’s initial chief of staff, Sue Grey, after only three months in the post.

Certainly even among civil servants who are aware of Whitehall’s systemic flaws, there is a view that the Prime Minister himself needs to be more active in running the machine if he is to get results.

One said, “Starmer appears to confuse process with results.”

“You could set up a child poverty task force, okay. But what are you supposed to do about the two-child benefit limit? You still have to make political choices and the authorities can’t do that for you.”

As well as setting up the Child Poverty Taskforce, Sir Keir has created a series of ‘mission boards’ to drive forward his agenda in each of those five key areas.

Each is chaired by the relevant minister – for example, the Health Mission Board is chaired by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary.

Alex Thomas, a former senior civil servant now at the Institute for Government think tank, suggested that if Sir Keir wanted “action and dynamism across the whole system” he would be a better chair for those boards himself.

Thomas said: “The British government system responds to involvement and leadership at ministerial and especially prime ministerial level… If you leave it to the civil service, no matter how much talent it has, it will fail to make its mark. It will go because it lacks that political direction and that capacity.” rights.”

Those around Starmer acknowledge that mission boards are not yet at full strength. They would soon become more public-facing organisations, holding meetings outside London and making more efforts to bring in expertise from outside government.

But the main way the Prime Minister will push his agenda forward is through “stock takes”. These are meetings where Sir Keir brings the people responsible for each mission into Downing Street to hold them accountable for what the data is showing in their area and to ask them how they propose to improve. It is an idea that was introduced by Sir Tony Blair on the advice of his delivery adviser Michael Barber, who has recently returned to government.

A senior government source said the frequency of these stocktakes would soon increase, adding: “If we are saying that this is the mission of the government and that is how people should assess its success and failure then it is clearly something like this.” Is what you need PM.” “Driving through.”

Over the next few weeks Pat McFadden, the cabinet minister who is helping the Prime Minister co-ordinate policy in Whitehall, will give a speech with more details on the Government’s plans for civil service reform.

Both she and Sir Keir are said to be aware of the need to bring more external expertise into government and make better use of data and artificial intelligence.

The government’s stated objectives here are bold. announced Sir Chris Wormald appointed this week As the new Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service, Sir Keir charged him with “nothing short of a complete reengineering of the British state”.

There was no shortage of people in Whitehall questioning whether the longest-serving head of a government department – ​​Sir Chris ran the Department of Health for eight years and the Department of Education for four years before that – Is the right person to change WhitehallSir Chris’s supporters say he is one of the people most open to reform in the current system.

This appointment was greeted with open contempt by Cummings, who sarcastically described it as a “really beautiful, artistic” decision which should serve as a “wake-up call” that “any change to the Westminster system Is absolutely determined to resist”.

And on that, at least, the success of this government depends on Dominic Cummings getting it wrong.