Labour considers largest Whitehall shake-up in decades

Labour is planning the biggest Whitehall shake-up in decades, breaking down departmental silos to pursue its missions for government, according to party officials.

Sir Keir Starmer is reviewing proposals for five new “mission boards” to aid cross-department work if he enters Downing Street on July 5.

The entities, to be headed by Starmer himself, would draw on private sector expertise and may be granted powers to help deliver policy, under plans being overseen by former Whitehall veteran-turned-Labour chief of staff Sue Gray.

Labour has outlined five long-term missions that would underpin its first term in government: driving economic growth, green energy investment, rebooting the NHS, creating safer streets, and delivering “opportunity for all” through a new skills agenda.

The Labour leader’s aim with the Whitehall reorganisation is to “break down silos” and reduce delays that can occur as measures pass between rival Whitehall departments and are split between different budgets, one person said.

Under the proposed overhaul, the Treasury would focus more on attracting investment and driving growth — as well as its traditional fiscal functions, the people added.

The shake-up forms part of the Labour leader’s vow to end “sticking-plaster politics” and usher in a “decade of renewal” for the country.

With three weeks until polling day, Labour retains a commanding poll lead that indicates it will form the next government.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a surprise election for July 4 means Labour’s exact plans for the new structure are not finalised, the people stressed.

But the ambition by Starmer is to streamline the slow, twisting Whitehall process to implement policies over the lifetime of the first parliament, which runs for five years.

“There may not be a revolutionary blueprint, but by the end of five years, you’ll see something very different to what we have now,” said Tom Baldwin, a former Labour communications director and Starmer’s biographer.

He stressed he anticipated 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.”

Starmer’s proposed overhaul is influenced in part by observing Theresa May, who he had worked with as director of public prosecutions when she was home secretary.

“He has respect for the way she [while prime minister] took charge of tackling violence against women and girls and chaired the task force to make sure it was delivering,” said one Labour official.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, shadow deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden are also envisaged as having significant roles in the new structures, the people added.

Under the proposals, Starmer may also chair an overarching board or committee that sits atop the five mission-specific boards, the people added.

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.”

Proposals from different policy teams have been “road-tested” with Jonathan Ashworth, shadow paymaster general, for any political weaknesses. Lucy Powell, shadow leader of the House of Commons, has worked with the teams to calculate which proposals need legislation.

Labour is also looking at ways to use the mission-led structure to usher in more private sector and corporate expertise, which could involve scaling up the use of non-executive directors at departments. “There will be opportunities for experienced people from outside government,” said one Labour official.

Other figures aligned with the party have warned the five missions cannot succeed without attracting private sector capital.

Lord Peter Mandelson, one of the architects of New Labour in the UK, said significant domestic reform was required on regulation, tax, planning rules and the labour market to compensate for “the self-imposed handicap of Brexit”.

While Labour declined to match the Conservatives’ vow this spring to axe 72,000 civil service jobs, some party figures believe there is scope to scale back or remodel the Cabinet Office and other elements of government, including the Government Communications Service.

Intrigue also abounds in Labour circles about the next cabinet secretary. Incumbent Simon Case, who was first appointed under Boris Johnson, is not expected to leave immediately, a move that would be seen as harming the civil service’s political impartiality, but many party insiders expect a changeover in the first 12 months of the next administration.

Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, and Sir Olly Robbins, former chief Brexit negotiator, have been touted by Labour officials as potential candidates to take on the most senior civil service role — as well as Jeremy Pocklington, the top civil servant at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Some Whitehall insiders anticipate a reset of relations between the civil service and the next political administration, following a plunge in morale among officials derided by some Tory MPs as “the blob” — a resistant force trying to frustrate policy — or attacked for working from home.

Starmer is seen as “simpatico” by mandarins, having previously attended the “Wednesday morning colleagues” meeting of permanent secretaries when he was DPP. “He’s a technocrat who knows the system and the challenges,” said one former permanent secretary.

This story has been amended to clarify when Sir Keir Starmer worked with Theresa May.