The Daily Telegraph

Brown likens Labour inner circle plan to Maoist China

EX-PM criticises Starmer’s ‘Gang of Four’ that would make decisions before they are taken to wider Cabinet

- By Genevieve Holl-allen Political Reporter

GORDON BROWN has compared Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for an inner Cabinet of four MPS to Communist China, as he said that the idea “may need some work”.

Should it win power, the Labour Party is looking at forming an executive cabinet that would make decisions before presenting them to the wider Cabinet.

The inner circle would reportedly include Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor; Angela Rayner, the shadow deputy prime minister; and Pat Mcfadden, the party’s national campaign coordinato­r and a veteran of New Labour.

But the 73-year-old former prime minister threw cold water over the plans, saying that he doubted such a set-up “could ever work”.

Speaking at an event for the Institute for Government (IFG), whose report into Whitehall reform was the basis for Sir Keir’s plan, Mr Brown said: “Triumvirat­es have been pretty difficult in the first place. To have a quadrumvir­ate, though, is very difficult.”

In a light-hearted jibe at Sir Keir’s proposals, he said: “The historical experience of that is very inauspicio­us, if I may say so.

“King Herod was part of a quadrumvir­ate when the four of them governed the Roman Empire, and you can take it right through to recent times and the Gang of Four, which if I remember right has not survived to tell much of the tale now.”

The Gang of Four was a Maoist political faction composed of officials of the Chinese Communist Party that came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

The group lost its power with Mao Tse-tung’s death and were handed suspended death sentences and lengthy prison terms.

Mr Brown added: “So I think the inner Cabinet idea may need some work. I doubt that the other 20 members of the Cabinet would be very happy if they were told that they were outside this inner circle.”

The Ifg’s report into the centre of government and the functionin­g of Whitehall concluded that a “full Cabinet is almost never a functional decision-making body”.

The report said that the size of Cabinet was partly to blame – with the total number of attendees regularly exceeding 30.

But Mr Brown said that he and Sir John Major, who was also speaking at the IFG event, would have been “quite shocked and surprised” if the suggestion of an inner Cabinet of four “could ever work”.

Sir Keir is also believed to be looking at creating “mission boards” responsibl­e for delivering the Labour Party’s priorities on key areas including the

‘Triumvirat­es have been pretty difficult in the first place ... A quadrumvir­ate, though, is very difficult’

economy and the NHS. As well as civil servants and ministers, business leaders and outside experts could be included on these boards to help devise policy.

The former prime minister did express support for bringing external expertise into the Civil Service and Whitehall decision-making, something that he said was very difficult to do during his tenure.

Speaking about his time in office during the late-2000s financial crisis, Mr Brown said that it became “very difficult” to bring in figures from the finance sector.

He added that the “easiest thing to do” was to appoint someone with external expertise as a minister through the House of Lords, rather than to appoint them as a civil servant on a temporary basis.

Sir Keir is aiming to become the first Labour prime minister since Mr Brown was beaten in the 2010 general election.

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