Keir Starmer has accused Whitehall officials of being too comfortable with failure and called for a “profound cultural shift” to boost productivity in the government’s key policy areas.
The Labour prime minister set out six major milestones, including building 1.5m homes in England, achieving 95% clean power by 2030, and increasing police numbers. However, he faced criticism from opponents who accused him of watering down targets or making it harder to measure success.
Starmer insisted that delivering ambitious goals was crucial to counter the rise of populist politics in the UK. “Too many people in Whitehall are comfortable with managed decline,” he said. “We need to be careful about the promises we make, but across Whitehall, that’s been internalised as ‘don’t say anything’, ‘don’t try anything too ambitious’.”
The six milestones aim to boost household disposable income and GDP per capita, increase clean power generation, improve NHS waiting times, and increase educational attainment. They also include plans for more neighbourhood police officers.
Starmer said the government needed to be “serious about delivering real change”, despite acknowledging that aiming high came with considerable risk.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/05/starmer-accuses-whitehall-of-being-comfortable-with-failure-in-landmark-speech