Fallout after the PM’s Cummings-inspired jab at the Civil Service, dismissing it as a “tepid bath of managed decline,” has left Labour in damage-control mode with Starmer U-turning on his comments within a day. Now Pat McFadden is scrambling to smooth things over by pledging to shake up the state, promising it will be “more like a start-up…”
Speaking at UCL, McFadden will launch a flashy £100 million fund aimed at pioneering public service reform. The FDA union has given their seal of approval for these reforms, though Starmer’s still not in civil servants’ good books…
McFadden insisted plans for Whitehall reform are not an attack on civil servants: “The people are good, but the systems and structures that they work in are too often outdated… They want to achieve, and we have to help them do it.” Though he went on to say “public servants are very clever people, but they’re not all-knowing”. Which is why the state needs to invest in new technology…
McFadden says the first “wave” of “test and learn teams” will begin in January, working on temporary accommodation and family support to make the state more like a “start up”, with more waves will follow later in 2025. He also says departments will have to make 2% savings, with “more to come” in the spending review launching tomorrow. No plan to cut jobs in the civil service though…
He goes on to ask “innovators” with tech expertise, or “weirdos or misfits”, (echoing Cummings again), to join the No. 10 Innovation Fellowship Program, saying “this is your time to serve your country.” Calling on them to channel their inner patriots…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”