PM’s Whitehall revolution to guarantee ‘people’s Brexit’
BORIS JOHNSON is plotting a dramatic overhaul of Whitehall after his landslide election victory, in a drive to demonstrate that the Government “works for the people”.
Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief aide, is to spearhead plans for radical reforms to the civil service, including a review of the processes for hiring and firing officials, to ensure Whitehall delivers the Prime Minister’s agenda. He has previously complained that “almost no one is ever fired” in Whitehall, during a lecture in which he set out a “to-do list” he had maintained in case “I ever manage to get control of No10.” It suggests Mr Johnson’s programme for the next five years is likely to be much more radical than the agenda he set out after taking over from Theresa May in July.
Separately, last night Downing Street dismissed suggestions from Brussels and pro-Remain campaigners that the Prime Minister would angle for a closer trading relationship with the EU, having gained an 80-strong majority that ends his reliance on hardline Brexiteer MPs.
Following the Conservative victory, some ministers claimed that Mr Johnson would seek to align Britain’s rules on the manufacturing of goods much closer to those of the EU in order to secure a favourable trade deal. But a senior Downing Street source said: “We are not going to soften Brexit or negotiate some high alignment model.”
Meanwhile, Thursday’s Queen’s Speech will include Mr Johnson’s plans to make terrorists serve “every day” of their prison sentences, as well as confirmation that the Government will enshrine in law a funding settlement for the NHS that will increase the budget of the health service by £33.9billion per year by 2023-24.
Both announcements go beyond the previous Queen’s Speech held on Oct 14, much of which will be repeated this week as Mr Johnson prepares to proceed with domestic reforms.
A No10 source said: “This election was as much about delivering on the people’s priorities as it was about getting Brexit done – and the Prime Minister understands that. We will show the public, especially Labour voters who trusted us with their vote, that we will deliver on the promises we have made on helping with the cost of living, tackling crime and supporting our NHS.
“This starts with making sure the NHS has the funding it needs to carry on being the best healthcare service in the world. It is one of the key priorities of the people’s government.”
Plans discussed by Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings for reform of Whitehall will also form a major part of the Prime Minister’s vision.
Mr Cummings, who worked as a special adviser to Michael Gove during the coalition years, set out his “to-do list” for reform of Whitehall in a 2014 lecture in which he called the concept of a permanent civil service “an idea for
the history books” and advocated abolishing the role of permanent secretaries, the mandarins who run individual departments. The Prime Minister’s most senior aide has also previously advocated creating a strengthened “office of the prime minister” to exert greater control over Whitehall.
Sources said Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings were planning to review human resources structures within the service, including the recruitment, training and dismissing of officials.
Mr Cummings, who led the official Vote Leave campaign in 2016, is a longstanding critic of Whitehall. In in his 2014 lecture to the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank he also called for rule changes to enable ministers based in the House of Lords to be questioned in the House of Commons.
He joked: “That would be on my todo list, if I ever manage to get control of No10. One of the first things I would do is [have] some orders in council whizzed through at 2am that gave the prime minister the right to do this”.
He also used the lecture to insist that the Cabinet should be “shrunk”, stating: “The idea of a cabinet of over 30 people is a complete farce; it should be maximum of probably six or seven people.”
Tomorrow Mr Johnson is expected to announce a minor Cabinet reshuffle ahead of a more drastic one after Jan 31.
Visiting Sedgefield, Mr Johnson said voters had “changed the Conservative Party for the better, and you have changed the future of our country for the better.”