After Sue Gray: How can Keir Starmer reset No.10?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Reports of dysfunction and unhappiness at the centre of government have led to Sue Gray’s departure as the prime minister’s chief of staff. In an effort to reset his top team, Keir Starmer has replaced Gray with Morgan McSweeney, and has also made a number of other key appointments to his No.10 operation. So what does this restructuring tell us about how Starmer wants to run his centre of government? What lessons should be taken from the difficulties – and disagreements – at the centre that have hindered Labour’s first 100 days in power? And what else needs to change to ensure No.10, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury deliver for the prime minister? The IfG’s final report of the Commission on the Centre of Government examined why the centre has failed successive prime ministers – and the early experiences of Keir Starmer’s administration have underlined, yet again, the urgent need to implement the Centre Commission’s seven recommendations for radical reform to create strengthened, united political leadership at the heart of government. This webinar explored Gray’s exit, assess Starmer’s reset, and discuss the IfG’s recommendations for reform. Our expert panel included: Sam Freedman, Author of Failed State and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government Dr Catherine Haddon, Programme Director at the Institute for Government Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government This event was chaired by Tim Durrant, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, good afternoon and welcome to this IFG webinar on after Sue Gray, what next for Downing Street.
0:06.9	My name is Tim Durant. I'm a program director here at the IFG.
0:10.0	Over the weekend on Sunday afternoon, IFG phones were buzzing as the news spread that Sue Gray had stepped down.
0:16.2	Obviously, we're interested in Sue Gray exit and her replacement by Morgan McSweeney but it also goes to themes
0:22.5	that the IFG has talked about over many years about the structures at the centre of government how
0:26.5	roles and responsibilities are divided and how the system is not good at delivering. We have said
0:34.0	over many years that the centre of government simply does not work, whoever is in power and whoever is doing the top jobs.
0:41.0	So today we're going to talk about what Keist-Dama is trying to do with his reset, what went wrong for Sue Gray, how the new people in Post might do things differently, but also what are the kind of bigger structural questions that the new government needs to deal with
0:55.0	to make number 10 and the rest of the centre of government fit for purpose in the 2020s and beyond.
1:00.0	We've got a brilliant panel here to discuss this.
1:03.0	My colleague Alex Thomas, who used to be a senior civil servant in the Cabinet office.
1:06.0	He leads the IFG civil service work programme and was part of the team looking at how the centre of government works that we published on earlier in the year.
1:14.1	My other colleague, Kath Haddon, top IFG colleague and a veteran Westminster and Whitehall
1:18.1	Watcher.
1:19.2	Can I say that quickly?
1:20.5	And Sam Friedman, IFG Senior Fellow and Former Government Advisor as well.
1:24.5	And author of the recent book, F why nothing works and how to fix it
1:28.9	which is of course required reading here at iFG towers so we've got a lot to talk about over the next
1:34.0	hour or so there's some questions coming through on slide already thank you for those please do
1:38.3	keep sending them in i'll try and draw them in throughout the conversation um just use the slide on the
1:44.0	website where you're watching this from.
1:46.5	Kath, to kick off, were you surprised by the news of Sue Gray exit, Sue Gray's exit, or do you
	...

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