Wes Streeting defends Labour U-turns – however authorities ought to ‘get it proper first time’

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the party’s New Year’s resolution for 2026 after a series of about turns should be ‘let’s try and get it right first time’

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Wes Streeting has defended Labour U-turns – but said the government should aim to get it right first time.

The Health Secretary suggested it should be the party’s New Year’s resolution for 2026 after a series of about turns.

It comes as the Treasury is preparing a support package for the pub industry following an outcry over the impact of a major hike in business rates. It also follows decisions to U-turn on cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners, cuts to disability benefits, and watering down inheritance tax hikes on farms.

Mr Streeting was asked whether U-turns were slowing the Government down, but told the Institute for Government (IfG) conference: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions. We love to hear it and if people think we’re getting it wrong – and we think that they’re right – far better to do the right thing rather than to spare one’s political blushes.”

He added: “In the NHS, we have an initiative called GIRFT – get it right first time. That should be our New Year’s resolution for 2026 – let’s try and get it right first time.”

Mr Streeting also used his speech on Tuesday to hit out at people within Labour’s ranks blaming Whitehall in what he described as an “excuses culture”. He said: “Bafflingly, some on my own side of the political divide have begun to parrot the same argument.

“They complain about the civil service. They blame stakeholder capture. This excuses culture does the centre-left no favours. If we tell the public that we can’t make anything work, then why on earth would they vote to keep us in charge?”

The comments will be seen as a swipe at Keir Starmer’s former aide in Downing Street, Paul Ovenden, who recently criticised the “weirdness” of the state holding Labour back. The ex-No 10 director of strategy said the party had fallen victim to a “Stakeholder State” that has shifted “politics and power away from voters” and left ministers “emasculated”.

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, also accused Whitehall departments of “resisting” growth-driving devolution as he called for sweeping reforms in Westminster. He used the IfG event to criticise the resistance to actions taken by devolved mayors, and claimed they were having to “fight endlessly” to get things done.

Mr Burnham also accused Government departments of working against each other. He said: “We see some that are taking contradictory positions within one department with a contradictory position against another or indeed, resisting actively the growth mission.

“If the growth mission is real, cross-cutting, piercing through all of Whitehall, why are we still arguing for things when we are out there getting the growth? Surely this is a moment to remove any barrier.

“The unelected state – Whitehall – currently holds too much power. Indeed, in my experience of 16 years in Westminster, the whip system disempowers the elected state, because often MPs are required to rubber-stamp the long-held departmental positions.

“I personally believe the answer to this, to a more functional Britain, is a major reform of the elected state – Westminster – to mirror what’s being done now in the local state, out in the world that I’m in, which is about place-based, mission-oriented delivery, very much focused around growth.”