Quangos are now responsible for almost a third of all government spending, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance. Some 438 arms-length bodies absorbed £391 billion of taxpayer cash in 2023-24, out of £1.2 trillion state spending overall. Close to half a million pen-pushers are now on the payroll…
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport sponsored 41 quangos last year, more than any other Whitehall department, including the BBC, which took home £5.2 billion. Back in March, Starmer promised a “bonfire of the quangos” and to cut the cost of regulation with what he called an “active government”. Now Reeves insists she wants to slash the number of environment quangos. A reminder: Labour has created 28 new quangos while abolishing just two. Talk about a black hole…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”