Civil servants too typically used as ‘scapegoats for political failure’, prime minister warns
In a speech setting out his vision for Whitehall, the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary Darren Jones will say officials are just as frustrated at as ministers by the ‘pace of change’
Keir Starmer’s Chief Secretary Darren Jones(Image: PA)
Civil servants have too often been used as scapegoats for political failure, Keir Starmer’s right hand man will warn today.
In a speech setting out his vision for Whitehall in 2026, Darren Jones will say officials are just as frustrated at as ministers by the “pace of change”. The Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister will say: “I know from working with many brilliant civil servants every day, working long hours, that they are just as frustrated at the system and how long it takes to get things done. They want to be the doers. Too often they have been scapegoats for political failure.”
His comments come after Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, hit out at people within Labour’s ranks blaming civil servants for what he described as an “excuses culture”. In a speech last week, Mr Streeting warned: “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?”
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Mr Jones will also set out plans to “promote the doers, not the talkers” in the top ranks of the civil service and reform the bonus scheme. While the pot of money available will remain the same, larger awards will be dished out to those who excel, the government said. The Cabinet Office said currently 55% of senior civil servants receive some form of bonus.
The top Labour minister will also use his address today to say the success of the Covid vaccine roll-out scheme must be a model for “peace time – not just in a crisis”. Within a year almost 120 million doses of the vaccine were administered across the UK.
Mr Jones will promise new taskforces to ramp up civil service recruitment and slash red-tape and take more risks, the government said. He will say: “Too often this approach of moving fast and fixing things is only applied in a crisis. Like the brilliant Passport Office, which only became brilliant after it spiralled into chaos. Or the Vaccine Taskforce. So today, I’m announcing that we will apply the Vaccine Taskforce model in ‘peace time’ – not just in a crisis.”
And he will set out his plan for a “new digital state” – making it easier to access services. Mr Jones will say: “Everyone agrees that the status quo is not working. The public, politicians and civil servants are all frustrated by the pace of change.
“The public sector has fallen unacceptably behind the private sector. Decades of stagnant productivity. Unsustainable increasing costs. Poor outcomes and unacceptable customer experience.The public rightly ask, if you can bank and shop online, in a quick and convenient way, then why can’t it be done for public services too?”
“The Prime Minister and I expect Whitehall to focus solely on delivering for you, instead of talking to itself. To move from interdepartmental arguments, internal policy papers, processes and discussions, to a new digital state that delivers public services directly to you: the customer.”
