Entire State of Mind: Starmer’s government reforms

There are really only two things former Prime Ministers agree on. One, just how awful Prime Minister’s Questions really is. And secondly, the more important need for state reform. 

Last Thursday, Starmer announced just that. In a carefully staged ‘no-notes’ speech, Starmer combined the very best of Blairite and Cameronite leadership as he carefully strolled around the stages, tie long-lost and sleeves rolled up, explaining his plan to take on the dream of a first-term majority government — reform the state. It marks the next innings in his “Plan for Change”, the three-word identifier that seems to be Number 10’s umbrella term for all changes they make to the economy, country, and now government. 

If you’re looking for material to define Starmerism, last Thursday’s speech is frankly, your best place yet. The phrase “Starmerism” is more of a pejorative than anything else now, often used by those on the left to define Starmer as a vague conservative with an incompatible or even feigned sense of left-wing moral justice. 

However to write off Starmerism or his reforms to the state as conservative, would be short-sighted. 

For the last four years, Starmer has, for better or worse, bulldozed his way through the Labour Party. Such is his grip on the party machine that the current General Secretary of the party is his former general election campaign chief, who was elected unopposed to the role. 

Whilst ideological alliances have come and gone, what has ultimately remained a constant in Starmer’s leadership is his undying desire to have his way. He has been markedly ruthless in ensuring that his changes to the party at all levels have been disseminated without significant dissent — a marked departure from the wranglings of Corbyn’s leadership that even escalated up to the shadow cabinet. 

The streak of pragmatic ruthlessness also goes beyond the last five years. Starmer craved the leadership of the party soon after he was elected in 2015, and was forthright in evaluating his personal shortcomings in vying for the role. His hiring of an acting coach to help his public speaking, and the recent debacle over whether he broke lockdown rules, are fruits of such activities. 

Hence his desire to reform (and indeed slim down) the Civil Service is not one drawn out of the conservative playbook, nor is it grounded in the murmurings of a populist ‘deep state’ conspiracy. It is instead grown from the pragmatic desire to see (what he views as) pragmatic policies he was elected on implemented in a fashion like his hold on the Labour Party. As time has shown, he isn’t afraid of being lambasted as a Tory to achieve that end goal. 

Testifying to how central this plan is to Starmerism are the people around the Prime Minister who have a role in this state reform. Leading the pre-speech media circuit was Pat McFadden, MP for Wolverhampton and the second most powerful minister in the Cabinet. Holding the sinecure position of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, McFadden’s day-to-day role involves oversight of the vast Cabinet Office, effectively placing him at the heart of government and thus its reforms. 

McFadden is the Deputy Prime Minister in all but name. Of the 10 Cabinet sub-committees, McFadden sits on seven, including three security councils, and three domestic committees. He also chairs the Home and Economic Affairs committee, overseeing the Treasury and the Home Office, and is separately the deputy chairman on all of Starmer’s ‘mission boards’, as part of the Prime Minister’s ‘mission-driven’ government. McFadden’s role at the heart of government in commanding the Cabinet Office, and his media engagements on the topic over the last few days demonstrate how central the issue is to Starmer, having sent his closest lieutenant to sell the scheme. 

Upper echelons of the Civil Service have seen recent shifts too. Amongst these was Cabinet Secretary Sir Simon Case, who was replaced by Sir Chris Wormald, formerly Permanent Secretary to the Department for Health and Social Care and a very well-liked figure within the institution. Known to keep a low profile, Wormald’s appointment likely aids Starmer in keeping government leadership political and Civil Service protestations low. 

Furthermore, the influence of Blair is undeniable. Few have been shouting louder from the rooftops than him about the role that technology and AI have to play in streamlining government. Through a plethora of summits and conferences, he and his Institute for Global Change have heavily lobbied governments to greater engage with the benefits that AI and technology can bring to governing in an environment where voters are increasingly impatient with the rate of change. 

And Number 10 is changing. In a move that largely slipped under the radar, Morgan McSweneey, the Downing Street Chief of Staff, quietly revived the ‘10DS’ team, founded by none other than Dominic Cummings in an attempt to make Number 10 more data driven. McSweeney is said to believe that state reform, defence spending and AI development are the three governing tenets on which Labour must thrive to win the next election. 

It all plays into a wider theme that, love him or hate him, Blair is right about. Labour cannot become a “status quo” party. Instead, they must radically innovate within government, as opposed to “a tepid bath of managed decline”, as Keir Starmer put it. 

The political situation certainly is set up to push any Prime Minister in this direction. Not only does Starmer have to bring material change to a country frustrated by a lack of any progress for 14 years, but he must also convince voters that government has the capacity to even bring such change, notwithstanding the economic constraints that are binding his hands behind his back. 

This is the underlying theme of his speech. It does not appear to be one of overt conservative ideology, nor populist pandering. Instead it is one of bleeding pragmatism. 

The biggest example of such was the scrapping of NHS England. Introduced under the infamous Lansley reforms in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (now deemed to be a unilateral disaster), its scrapping is a significant move from a Prime Minister who has been overly careful about scaring the media machine, and draws a thick line under any idea that the NHS will be treated in similar austerity fashion as it was during the Coalition years. Less is said for other departments.

Most interesting, however, was the approach from which Starmer arrived at the topic. Instead of a demonisation of the civil service (out of the Tory/Reform playbook), Starmer ventured to the topic of Civil Service reform through the lens of national security.

It is a unique move — and something of a gyration to try and link cutting public health bureaucracy to defending Ukrainian sovereignty. But in one way, it worked. 

The Prime Minister is invigorated by his role on the global stage as a US-EU mediator. According to those close to Number 10, many inside view the global uncertainty as Sir Keir’s “Falklands moment”, which he will ultimately be defined by in his first term. Indeed, he still holds a lead over Badenoch and Farage on national security issues. Over the last few weeks, Starmer has been able to navigate some of the most complex personalities on the political stage, and appear ever-more a leader out of it, to the gritted teeth of both the far-right and the far-left. His ability to just simply deliver, in this instance on the world stage, has clearly invigorated Downing Street, which has since played host to multiple visits and conferences by world leaders since. 

This is not new. The link between national security, Ukraine and the need for radical change at home was a central theme of the Tory general election campaign, however awkwardly it ended up being pushed down the throats of voters.

The media were not briefed on the scrapping of NHS England. Similarly in recent days the No 10 media machine has doubled down on their plans to re-shape the state. Undoubtedly the government is now the most confident it has been since its approval ratings nosedived. 

When he walked sans jacket and tie onto the stage, Sir ‘call-me-Keir’ Starmer opened his speech with a barb about Dettol soap. With his recent foreign policy wins having shown him the grit needed to get some good headlines, there is a slight chance that for the PM the team is gathered, the sleeves are rolled, and the days of sanitised government are over. 

Image: Number 10/ Flickr