Keir Starmer highlights his personal commitment to civil service reform

“I’ve spent 10 years in opposition, where it’s very difficult to change things. I’m not going to spend years in government equally not being able to change things,” the prime minister told me in an interview for the Institute for Government’s Inside Briefing podcast.

Now eight months in office, Keir Starmer’s patience with the government machine appears to have run out. The prime minister seems to have sympathy with those who have criticised his government for launching a slew of reviews and consultations in lieu of concrete action. His frustration with the layers of bureaucracy that get in the way of change shone throughout the interview, with the PM complaining of "this culture of not trying if things go wrong".

While the PM’s speech at a healthcare consumables company in Hull centred on the problems with the government system that prevent "fantastic civil servants" from succeeding, his interview with us expanded on the human motivations and incentives that have constructed and reinforced that system. While acknowledging the frustrations of many civil servants, he argued that there is a "human inhibition" against being the person responsible for a change that could go wrong. He said he had seen this in his time as head of the Crown Prosecution Service and he could see it now as prime minister: too often he would find ministers "walking around the problem" rather than tackling it head on. Reviews and consultations were a cop out for "politicians who don’t really want to take a decision".

Starmer wants to combine central accountability with departmental autonomy

Starmer’s remedy appears to be a mixture of carrot and stick, of ‘oomph’ from central government on priorities including artificial intelligence and tech combined with departmental autonomy based on "a clear mandate, for taking decisions and getting on with it". But although he argued that “we have to empower our ministers, and through them, the teams,” the PM’s sense of the need for central accountability was also strong. Describing the "stocktake" process for the health mission board, he highlighted the value of comparative data for driving performance, saying that “putting all that information on the table in one place with a bright torch, you could then start asking really searching questions questions... why is it that we're in this place here and another place there?” 

The prime minister’s decision to abolish NHS England and bring responsibility for the running of the health service back to ministers into central government will give an even harder edge to this accountability process.

The prime minister’s personal commitment to government reform is welcome

The PM is right that he is not the first to identify problems with the incentives built into government that drive the behaviour of ministers and civil servants, nor the first to try to change them. He acknowledged the scepticism of those who will feel they have seen this movie before and know just how it ends. Nonetheless, his personal commitment to government reform is welcome. “It’s ultimately my responsibility because I need to make sure that we drive through this change”, he told us. 

Perhaps the most convincing reason Starmer gave as to why he would succeed where others have failed is that he believes he has no alternative. Reform of the state is a “necessity”, he told us, in a context where there is no spare money for his government to spend. It also feels like a necessity for a prime minister who wants to make the case for an "active state" capable of delivering for the public as a bulwark against populism. Could this sense of necessity be what is needed to concentrate ministerial minds on pushing through reform? 

The Institute for Government will be watching closely to find out.