Labour tasks former department chief with devising UK government revamp
The UK’s opposition Labour party is to develop plans to rewire how government works to deliver on its priorities if it takes power following an election that is expected to be held next year.
It has been reported that Sue Gray, the incoming chief of staff to Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer and former senior civil servant, will be tasked with devising how government should be structured to deliver the five missions Starmer has set out for the next Labour government. These are: secure the highest sustained growth in the G7; make Britain a clean energy superpower; build a National Health Service (NHS) fit for the future; make Britain’s streets safe; and break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage for every child.
Gray will begin working in Starmer’s office next month, following a six-month waiting period between her work in the civil service and joining Labour. Gray’s last role in government was as the second permanent secretary at the UK Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. She also previously served as director general, propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office, and led the so-called ‘Partygate’ inquiry into a series of gatherings held in then-prime minster Boris Johnson’s No.10 Downing Street when coronavirus lockdown restrictions were in place.
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‘We need to find a way of making government work better’
According to The Times newspaper, Starmer’s first role for Gray will be to draw up plans for how government should be structured to deliver his key objectives.
A senior Labour source told the paper “we know we need to find a way of making government work better and Sue’s first job will be thinking about that and talking to the civil service in access talks about making it happen”.
They added: “Some of that will be about traditional machinery of government changes – are the departments we will inherit the right ones – but also things like, can you do more with cabinet committees, or have cross-government teams with a specific focus. She won’t be thinking about the election, but how we will make stuff happen if we win.”
Any reorganisation of government would come after prime minister Rishi Sunak’s revamp of central government departments earlier this year.
Sunak has created four new departments – the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (both of which have been formed in the main from the previous Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, known as BEIS); a combined Department for Business and Trade (which takes BEIS’ remaining work and combines it with the Department for International Trade); and a re-focused Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with its digital responsibilities moved to the new science ministry.
Permanent secretaries have been announced for these departments. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will be led by Jeremy Pocklington, the current head of the communities department; the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will be led by Sarah Munby, previously head of BEIS; and the Department for Business and Trade will be led by existing Department for International Trade chief Gareth Davies.
About Richard Johnstone
Richard Johnstone is the executive editor of Global Government Forum, where he helps to produce editorial analysis and insight for the title’s audience of public servants around the world. Before joining GGF, he spent nearly five years at UK-based title Civil Service World, latterly as acting editor, and has worked in public policy journalism throughout his career.
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