Why is everyone making such a fuss about the departure of Sue Gray earlier this week as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, and over who does what in No 10? Why are we not talking about policy, the budget and wars overseas? The reason is that no prime minister in history has ever succeeded without having the right staff and operation under them in Downing Street.
So it matters profoundly that no Labour government since 1945 has so badly bungled its Downing Street operation in its first 100 days in power. Starmer and his leading figures should have listened harder to the bountiful advice before July about how to run his office. Wise heads from past administrations implored them to recognise that governing needed a fresh mindset, and an acceptance that fixing broken structures at the centre of government should be prioritised. But Starmer and his triumphant team were looking elsewhere and, in consequence, underachieved massively in their vital first three months.
This is not the place to rehearse the story, but to set out what Starmer and Morgan McSweeney, appointed chief of staff this week in succession to Gray, need to do now to put the house back in order. But get it right now, and the turbulence of the past few weeks will soon be forgotten.
Senior figures across Whitehall and Labour worry that Starmer doesn’t understand how to operate as prime minister, and seems unwilling or unable to learn. One thing I’ve learned from 45 years of my writing about Downing Street and talking to its senior staff is that learning how to run No 10 is not rocket science. I believe he can step up if he can lean on mentors and listen to advice.
Successful Downing Streets, as under past Labour prime ministers Clement Attlee, James Callaghan and Tony Blair, took their staff’s loyalty for granted. Before crossing the threshold, each of them thought deeply about the staff and units they would need, appointed people with a keen sense of public duty, and kept them in post. “Relaunches”, constant churn and leak inquiries, always evidence of a failing No 10, were rare in their administrations.
The sheer speed, diversity and complexity of a prime minister’s life means that they have to rely unquestioningly on their staff, who need above all three qualities: expertise, knowhow and the right temperament. Nothing a party leader may have done before becoming prime minister comes anywhere close to what happens the moment they cross the threshold: speed of learning is essential. Harriet Harman is right to say “missteps” are as common early on as they are inevitable.
The prime minister has to have command of every area of national life, so has to rely upon the specialist expertise of others. He has not yet appointed a national security adviser, at a time of very severe international tension. He needs a commanding figure, not a courtier. Candidates with diplomatic and intelligence experience abound.
Starmer equally is short on financial and economic expertise: ex-Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane, who has worked in Whitehall, could come in to head up a new economic unit. The recent Institute for Government commission on the centre of government, of which I was deputy chair, underlined – among other reforms – the need for No 10 to work in lockstep with the chancellor and Treasury, producing costed long-term plans to avoid the squabbling that bedevilled so many earlier administrations.
Knowhow is critically lacking at present: it always causes problems if tribal and comfortable figures are preferred to those who know and understand how Whitehall works. Can Starmer show he is prepared to appoint seasoned figures to No 10, with deep experience of how government operates? The cabinet secretary, the highest-ranking civil servant in the UK government, is a post soon to be worryingly empty, following Simon Case’s planned departure on health grounds. A leader and healer who can bring the permanent secretaries in Whitehall together is needed. The successful candidate – very likely to be female, strong candidates abound – badly needs to reform and modernise the civil service, while encouraging a large cohort of hugely talented officials back into the fold.
Finally, staff with the right temperament need to be appointed. Since 2016, far too many talented but fiery aides have come to Downing Street, which reached a low point under Boris Johnson’s premiership, when fear, misogyny and backstabbing were rife. Harold Wilson’s premiership was knocked off course by tribal infighting, as was Gordon Brown’s until the Stakhanovite official Jeremy Heywood returned in 2008 to restore order. Starmer needs to find long-serving, capable figures, like Anji Hunter and Sally Morgan under Blair.
The prime minister needs to start listening. Goodwill for him is still there. I suggest this weekend he goes for a long walk with Blair’s longstanding chief of staff Jonathan Powell or his old lawyer colleague and mentor, Alex Carlile. But does he realise the significant danger to himself and his project if he doesn’t listen to wise voices this time?
Anthony Seldon’s book Truss at 10: How not to be prime minister was published last month
