ALEX BRUMMER: If solely we had an Elon Musk to shrink the British state
Never has the intellectual divide between political leaders on each side of the Atlantic been greater.
And nothing better symbolises this chasm separating Keir Starmer‘s Labour and Donald Trump‘s Republicans than Trump’s choice of hi-tech billionaire Elon Musk to be his efficiency tsar.
Since taking office in July, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been intent on expanding the bloated British state, with an eye-watering tax hike of £40 billion in the Budget, a huge injection of £22.4 billion into the NHS and the creation of quangos.
What a contrast with President-elect Donald Trump, who has tasked not just Musk (pictured) but also pharma and tech pioneer Vivek Ramaswamy, to head a new Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE).
Both have already trumpeted their ambition – on the Musk-owned social media channel X – to wipe $2 trillion from the cost of running the US federal government. ‘Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!’ declared Musk.
Never has the intellectual divide between political leaders on each side of the Atlantic been greater
Nothing better symbolises this chasm separating Keir Starmer’s Labour and Donald Trump’s Republicans than Trump’s choice of hi-tech billionaire Elon Musk to be his efficiency tsar
Tonight Rachel Reeves – a self-confessed admirer of the US – has an opportunity to follow suit and embrace a new world of efficiency when she addresses grandees of the City of London at the annual Mansion House dinner.
Imagine the positive impact in the City if the Chancellor set out credible plans to streamline the British state which now spends a mind-boggling 44 per cent – up
5 per cent since the pandemic – of the £2.7 trillion annual output of the UK economy. Don’t hold your breath. Because this government is set on a fateful course of adding to its bills rather than cutting costs.
The fact is that Britain is desperately in need of its own Elon Musk-type efficiency tsar. When his appointment was announced, City economist Simon French of investment bank Panmure Liberum, suggested it could change attitudes in Britain.
‘This is a big moment for the UK economy, with a far larger state sector…’ he tweeted. ‘If the US Department of Government Efficiency achieves $2 trillion of savings without damaging outcomes, then debate on scope-depth of public services changes at next UK election.’
Any efficiency tsar here would start by dismantling Labour’s plans for new quangos and organisations which will do little more than mimic bureaucracies which already exist.
These include the new ‘Border Security Command’ which is duplicating work done by the immigration and security services and the National Crime Agency; and ‘Skills England’ which is doubling up on work being done by private sector trade organisations and trades unions.
The list goes on. Labour’s plans for an Industrial Strategy Council and a National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, despite their grandiose names, will simply add more red tape and wage bills, increasing the size of the state rather than productivity.
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk arrives on stage at an America PAC town hall on October 26,
Across government, budgets have exploded over the last decade. The NHS which gobbled up £144 billion in 2016 is now projected to cost £277 billion in the current fiscal year. Education spending has climbed from £102 billion to £146 billion over the same period. The nation’s welfare bill has climbed from £240 billion to £379 billion. The transport budget has gone from £29 billion to £66 billion.
And yet no one would say state services have improved –quite the reverse. Anyone seeking to claim ‘Pensions Credit’, following the Chancellor’s raid on the winter fuel allowance, can vouch for that.
If we had our own Musk to drive efficiency in the public sector the red tape would be peeled away while the unions would not be indulged. We were shown what could be achieved when, as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson appointed a vaccine tsar in Dame Kate Bingham who harnessed the efficiency of the private sector to enable the NHS to produce Covid-19 vaccines in record time.
It says everything about Labour’s approach that this week British pharma giant AstraZeneca, which developed the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, announced it is to plough a record £2.7 billion of research and development expenditure into the US rather than the UK.
If in Britain we had the willpower to challenge the inefficiency of the state, there is every reason to believe it could be shrunk.
That would create a more agile and productive nation.
