Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray has told No 10 to be “careful” about civil service cuts and derogatory language about the work of Whitehall.
Making her maiden speech in the House of Lords, Gray made the case that civil servants were integral to realising the government’s objectives and would be listening to language that referred to them as “blobs” and “pen-pushers”, and to talk of cuts with “axes” and “chainsaws”.
Experts have said civil service transformation is very likely to cost more than it saves for some years. The government is targeting a 15% cut in “admin” costs of the civil service by 2030, saving £2.2bn and leading to about 10,000 job losses.
At the same time, a £350m fund has been launched to cover the costs of redundancies and a £3.25bn “transformation fund” is available to help with the costs of public service reform, particularly with the use of artificial intelligence and new computing systems.
One Whitehall source said the amount of money intended to be saved each year “hasn’t really been worked out yet” and the expectation is that “big savings won’t kick in” until the end of the forecast period of 2028-29.
Another senior Whitehall figure said spending billions on technology to create productivity savings in the civil service was a “huge gamble” as it was far from clear that savings would be made quickly – pointing to IT changes that often ran over their allocated time and budget in government.
Spending in Whitehall is due to rise over the next five years by an average of 1.2%, but much of this increase will go to the NHS and defence, while unprotected departments could see cuts of about 0.8% each year from 2026.
Alex Thomas, a programme director at the Institute for Government, said: “If you want to make the state more effective, sometimes that does take a little bit of money and that can release more savings. On the civil service side, the win is not loads of extra money. You can save a bit – £1.5-2bn over the spending review period – but the real win is making the civil service more effective.
“With the money for civil service redundancies, it’s worth paying to get rid of some people you think aren’t the most effective people. The private sector wouldn’t think twice about it … but I don’t think that, in the short term, will release loads of money and the transformation fund is likely to cost a bit.”
He added: “It’s about productivity, better decision making, better advice, better organisation of public services. You need good people to do that, and deconflicting or delayering some of the growth of the centre, where you’ve got lots of people and too many chiefs. You can have fewer people and clearer direction.”
Gray made her intervention in the House of Lords after leaving Starmer’s government in the autumn as part of a shake-up in which she was replaced by the Labour campaign expert Morgan McSweeney. She was given a peerage by Starmer in January and her first speech in the House of Lords focused on her career as a civil servant and the future of the civil service.
In what appeared to be a joke about her short tenure in No 10 with Starmer, she told the Lords: “I am not sure what it is about the mention of my time in Downing Street that brings me to the issue of job security and employment.”
She said: “I want to return to my first set of jobs in what was the Department for Social Security, working in employment support, as it is highly relevant to today’s debate and to the future of our civil service. Back then, I worked with truly heroic and committed people, striving every day, in very difficult circumstances, to help people in even more challenging situations.
“They were the civil service at its best: on the frontline, as far away from Whitehall’s machinations as it is possible to be. Today, I see the same sort of brilliance. What these and other civil servants are doing is central to the government’s – and the nation’s – mission to bring growth back into our economy and security to our society. That is why I would caution all of us to be careful, not only about our decisions but our language also. When we hear phrases with ‘blobs’, ‘pen-pushers’, ‘axes’, ‘chainsaws’ and other implements, they hear it too.
“Difficult decisions are needed, of course, and the civil service will be keen to be part of any reform journey, but we need them and other public servants to succeed. I will continue to support a progressive civil service. I hope others will do the same.”
