Labour chiefs mull plan to replace top civil servants with political appointees
EXCLUSIVE: Permanent Secretaries, widely known after Sir Humphry of Yes Minister, would go in favour of political appointees according to the plan being looked at
Share
You must log in or register to see images
Jeremy Corbyn visiting Doncaster yesterday as it was hit by floods(Image: Christopher Furlong)
Jeremy Corbyn is planning to give Whitehall’s Sir Humphreys the order of the boot.
The real-life role of the iconic mandarin in the television hit Yes Minister is to be abolished under plans being considered by
Labour chiefs.
The move comes as part of a revolutionary shake-up of Britain’s famously independent Whitehall army of civil servants charged with putting government’s’ policies into effect.
Mr Corbyn and his shadow cabinet colleagues, who would take over as ministers, believe the current service is too steeped in years of austerity, privatisation and right-wing economic thinking to fairly administer Labour’s long-term economic “transformation”.
Instead they want Whitehall departments to be headed by political appointees sympathetic to the government’s aims.
Why should I not vote Conservative? 24 awful policies you can't forget in the 2019 general election
You must log in or register to see images
The move would come as part of a revolutionary shake-up(Image: Christopher Furlong)
A shadow Cabinet minister said: “For too long the promises political parties make at election time do not come to pass because they get clogged up or frustrated by the machine.
“Governments of all parties have felt this and it is time to find a better way of making sure the promises we make are delivered.”
It follows a similar exercise carried out under the Tory-Lib Dem coalition in 2012 after ministers complained about being frustrated by the slow workings of the government machine. Results of that £50,000 exercise disappeared into Sir Humphrey’s shredder.
Discussions among Labour policy-makers have examined systems in France and the US where the top tier of government administrators is expected to make way for a new team after every election.
They have concentrated on the recently introduced systems in Australia and New Zealand where the equivalent of Sir Humphreys have been replaced by administrators on legal contracts to deliver specific government policies.