Why Starmer's criticism of civil service will backfire

Through a perceived betrayal’ of the government apparatus, the PM has made his life much harder, writes Andrew Grice

- Andrew Grice

Can Chris Wormald, the new cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, achieve the task Keir Starmer has set him: "Nothing less than the complete rewiring of the British state to deliver bold and ambitious long-term reform?"

It won’t be easy – and Starmer has unwittingly made Wormald’s task harder. In the foreword to his “plan for change”, Starmer accused Whitehall of being “comfortable with failure” and having a “declinist mentality”. In his launch speech, he angered civil service unions by claiming “too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline”.

They accused Starmer of a “betrayal” because he and his ministers assured officials on taking office they would not scapegoat them or repeat Conservative attacks on an obstructive Whitehall “blob”. Incoming Labour ministers were welcomed as a breath of fresh air by their officials but now the atmosphere is poisonous.

Referring to Starmer’s “tepid bath” remarks, Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union for senior civil servants, said: “Try that language as a CEO and see if it boosts productivity.”

Although Starmer insisted he did not want to “drain the swamp” (like Donald Trump), he is the latest in a long line of prime ministers to vent their frustration at the Whitehall machine. As Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s chief of staff and now Starmer’s national security adviser, put it: “When you arrive in No 10 and pull on the levers of power, you discover they are not connected to anything.”