One year in post: Keir Starmer’s ministers are learning on the job

When Labour returned to power at July’s general election, most ministers had never served in government. For the most part Keir Starmer chose to appoint cabinet ministers to the briefs they had shadowed in opposition, but a familiar policy subject is no preparation for the  complexities of government – understanding write-rounds, running a private office, and taking through legislation.

Prior ministerial experience was an advantage for some – so it is not surprising that Ed Miliband has made considerable progress on the clean power mission, given he had a previous stint as energy secretary under Gordon Brown. But even so, government has changed since 2010: the civil service has shrunk and grown, technology has developed, and there is a whole new cast list of backbench MPs to win over.  

So all ministers have had to get familiar with how government works in the 2020s, and quickly. And they have made progress towards their agenda, passing 21 acts of parliament, advancing Labour’s five missions and negotiating in two spending reviews. But as the Welfare Bill rebellion showed, governing is about more than just managing processes. And it is easy for ministers to get caught up by day-to-day demands without thinking strategically about what they want to achieve. As Darren Jones told the IfG in January:

“what it took me about a month to realise is, actually, you've got to find the space and the challenge of your own performance to be able to step back and do that, and just make sure you're not wasting any minute that you have in government.” 

While we know that ministers received induction sessions in July 2024, ¹⁰ https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-11-27/16591  learning on the job is an inevitable part of being a minister. 

Ministers have see-sawed in their approach to the civil service

On entering office, ministers had to decide how to work with the civil service – and opted for a concerted attempt to repair relations. As a former senior civil servant himself, Keir Starmer’s pledged “my confidence, my support and, importantly, my respect” to officials, ¹³ https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-message-from-prime-minister-keir-starmer-to-the-civil-service  while Bridget Phillipson told DfE civil servants that “great departments are not made by their secretaries of state, but by all of the people who work in them”. ¹⁴ https://www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/article/meet-the-new-boss-what-incoming-secretaries-of-state-are-telling-their-officials  This was welcome – the ministerial–civil service relationship has come under huge strain in recent years.  

But as time has progressed, it has been clear that ministers have encountered frustrations with the system. Starmer suggested in December that too many officials are “comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline” – while he was right to call for the civil service to be innovative and creative, this message did not land well. He appeared to row back from this rhetoric a few months later, recognising – alongside the cabinet secretary – that many officials also share frustrations with bureaucratic inertia. Ministers need to figure out how to bring civil servants with them, rather than dragging them kicking and screaming. 

Even before the first reshuffle, there has been churn in the ministerial ranks

There has been much speculation over recent months about when Starmer will carry out his first reshuffle. He may want to reward strong performers, bring in fresh talent and relegate some to the backbenches. But he has already had to deal with turnover among his ministers – eight have left the government in the last year. Starmer made minimal changes to replace them, generally choosing to promote ministers within departments or promote backbenchers, rather than more substantially rearranging portfolios. 

Some ministers have also decided their principles were more important than their position. Two resigned over policy disagreements: Anneliese Dodds quit as development minister over cuts to the aid budget, while Vicky Foxcroft left her role as a government whip due to the proposed disability benefit reforms. More may follow over the course of the parliament, with a tight fiscal environment likely to be the cause of unhappiness if ministers are faced with tough spending choices.  

Three other departures came following standards issues, including Louise Haigh as transport secretary and Tulip Siddiq as City minister. It is clear from these cases that ministers need to live up to Starmer’s high expectations of their behaviour, which is perhaps unsurprising given Labour’s criticism of ethical scandals under the last government. The PM sent a strong signal that he takes this issue seriously through his updated ministerial code, which bolstered the powers of his independent ethics adviser (though we are still waiting for more updates on the government’s ethics agenda). 

Special advisers have taken time to settle into government

New ministerial appointments also saw the arrival of a new cohort of special advisers (spads). In the autumn, however, there were reports that many had joined a union over dissatisfaction with their salaries. Spad pay scales had declined significantly in real terms since 2010, though have reportedly been rebanded. 

The government has not yet released its annual spad report, but departmental transparency releases about special advisers’ gifts and meetings show that the makeup of the spad ranks is still evolving.

At least seven spads who were in post in the autumn were gone by the new year, of which two were DfT advisers who left alongside Louise Haigh. But No.10 has seen the biggest change in personnel – while Starmer shook up his Downing Street operation when Sue Gray left as chief of staff in October last year, he also brought in more than a dozen new spads in the first three months of 2025. This makes sense, since he previously had proportionally fewer advisers compared to his recent predecessors – though there have since been reports of clashes between No.10 spads. ¹⁶ https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2025/06/inside-no-10s-new-dysfunction  The PM must decide what political support he needs to achieve his objectives.

There is no annual appraisal process for government ministers, some of whom will feel more professional satisfaction than others after one year in post. But all ministers will face new and varied challenges in the remainder of the parliament – from getting on top of a new brief after a reshuffle to working out how to work effectively with their departments, to steering bills through a party – and parliament – that is not shy of speaking out. As the first anniversary of the government passes, the prime minister should find time to review the performance of his ministerial team – and work out where the gaps in their skills, or knowledge, can best be addressed.