THE Labour Government is considering launching a “Project Chainsaw” inspired by the far-right poster boys Elon Musk and Argentinian president Javier Milei, reports say.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are both said to be looking at the proposals from the Labour Together think tank – which has close ties to the UK administration – in a bid to slash thousands of jobs in the public sector.
The Guardian reported that the project’s “chainsaw” name was inspired by Musk, who waved a chainsaw around on stage at the hard-right Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the US last month.
The Tesla chief executive had been handed the power tool by Milei, who waved a chainsaw at rallies during his successful 2023 campaign to become Argentina’s president.
Labour Together told The Guardian that it hopes to channel the far-right politicians’ ideas but “with a radical centre-left purpose”.
The news that Labour are considering following Musk and Milei’s lead comes after Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, told his party conference that, should he win power at Holyrood, he would also be inspired by Musk to create a Scottish “Doge”.
The US Department of Government Efficiency – known by the meme term Doge – is nominally led by Musk and has brought in severe public sector cuts despite allegations that the law is being widely ignored.
The Guardian reported that Labour Together wanted to look at “more legally risky ways to cut civil service numbers” including for poor performance, abolishing, or merging government departments.
It further said that Prime Minister Starmer would, in his own speech this Thursday, announce sweeping reforms to the public sector which would see thousands of jobs cut.
However, the Prime Minister’s press secretary hit back at claims the Government’s project had been given the "chainsaw" name.
She told reporters: “We reject that juvenile characterisation. As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster [Pat McFadden] set out this weekend, it is not about slashing the state, it is about reshaping the state so it works for working people.”
Starmer's official spokesman meanwhile said: “We are not taking an ideological approach to this. There is no approach here where we are taking a chainsaw to the system.
“The focus that we are taking is making the state more effective, we are making the state more agile in a way that delivers for working people.
“Part of that will obviously mean that the state must be delivering value for money for people and … that will be at the heart of the spending review, but also we want to see a state that is more effective at delivering for people.”
Starmer said he wanted to reverse what he described as a “trend” under the previous government of decisions being made by other bodies.
Asked whether the Government was planning a “bonfire of the quangos”, Downing Street would not be drawn on which specific regulators or decisions could be affected.
Discussing Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said: “[Starmer] said that to deliver security and renewal we must go further and faster to reform the state, to deliver a strong, agile and active state that delivers for working people.
“This includes Cabinet assessing processes and regulations that play no part in delivering the plan for change and the Government taking responsibility for decisions rather than outsourcing them to regulators and bodies, as had become the trend under the previous government.”
