The trouble with Starmer’s plan for change

At his speech at a Hull business campus this morning, Keir Starmer was introduced by a man who proudly noted that the site was home to various brands, including Durex. So it was fitting that ‘protection’ was a constant theme throughout the Prime Minister’s speech on his planned reforms to the civil service – and his announcement that NHS England is to be scrapped.

‘National security for national renewal’, the PM promised, stressing the need to have an ‘active state’ to deal with challenges both abroad and at home. The beginning of the Ukraine war gave Boris Johnson’s premiership purpose in 2022; the conflict’s looming close offers Starmer a narrative for overhauling warfare and welfare.

To do this, Starmer wants public sector reform: that three-word phrase beloved of all politicians. In front of a group of beaming women, the PM declared he wanted to ‘tear down the walls of Westminster’, getting the state to ‘operate at maximum power’ by making it ‘closer to communities.’