Senior Tory politician Nicky Morgan has described Labour’s plans for delivering in government as “tremendously encouraging”.
At a Reform think tank event on Thursday, CSW asked about the prevalence of former senior civil servants – including Sue Gray, Sir Patrick Vallance and the new prime minister himself – in political roles in government, and what impact the panel thought this would have on delivery.
Baroness Morgan, a former culture and education secretary, who served in administrations under David Cameron and Boris Johnson, said: “I think it’s actually a very good thing. And I think it’s good because I’m quite excited about the mission boards: I think the people who have worked in Whitehall are able to get over the silo mentality – which we all know about – and get people pulling in five different, big areas all together. I think that is tremendously encouraging, as well as the focus on delivery.”
But she added that ministers will need to hold officials to account for that delivery.
“So I’m encouraged, but I think we’ve got a way to go to really see Whitehall departments responding to that drive from the mission boards,” she said.
In Sir Keir Starmer’s first press conference on Saturday, he said that he will set up mission delivery boards which he will also chair “to make sure that it’s clear to everyone that they are my priority in government”.
Labour’s election manifesto described mission-driven government as being about “raising our sights as a nation and focusing on ambitious, measurable, long-term objectives that provide a driving sense of purpose for the country”.
“It means a new way of doing government that is more joined up, pushes power out to communities and harnesses new technology, all with one aim in mind – to put the country back in the service of working people,” it added.
Labour has set out five missions as part of this plan: kickstart economic growth; make Britain a clean energy superpower; take back our streets; break down barriers to opportunity; and build an NHS fit for the future.
Earlier in the debate, Morgan suggested the government could make great gains by choosing to invest in delivery roles over those in policymaking.
“There are brilliant civil servants, but it’s much easier to come up with a policy idea than it is to actually deliver it,” she said. “And one of the things they could do, if you’re talking about putting money into civil service staffing, is to put it into the delivery functions not into the policy brains.”
Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, meanwhile, praised the experience of Starmer’s team of ministers and the decision to keep most of his former frontbench in the same roles.
“Considering this is the first time in 14 years we’ve had a Labour government, this is a remarkably experienced-looking set of ministers – both those they’ve brought from outside and those who actually were in government 14 years ago,” he said in response to CSW's question on the makeup of Starmer’s team. “And also the movement across almost wholesale from shadowing is a very positive sign that we’ll get some stability.”