Labour’s swamp: Keir Starmer resets

<p>Former Labour strategist and architect of the Labour missions, Peter Hyman, joins the New Statesman podcast to discuss Keir Starmer’s “plan for change” speech on Thursday.</p><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Hyman discusses the difficulties Labour will face in implementing their missions and is scathing about Whitehall, saying resistance from staffers is stifling innovation:</p><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p>“Three permanent secretaries I've heard in the last month have been resisting having outsiders come in to help,” he says.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p>“I don't blame civil servants, particularly individual civil servants… What I do blame is the system. At the moment, there is a culture that is not geared towards innovation. It is geared to business as usual… a lot of civil servants are incredibly paranoid about taking any risks because they fear they'll be called in front of a select committee.”</p><br /><p><br /></p><p>Read: <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/the-staggers/2024/12/starmers-pledges-leave-his-government-exposed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Starmer’s pledges leave his government exposed, </a>by Rachel Cunliffe;<strong>&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-essay/2024/11/keir-starmer-must-remember-his-mission" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Keir Starmer must remember his mission,</a> by Peter Hyman</p><br /><p><br /></p><p><strong>LISTEN AD-FREE:</strong></p><p>📱<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2022/06/newapp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Download the New Statesman app</a></p><br /><p><strong>MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN:</strong></p><p>❓ <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/2022/10/you-ask-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ask a question</a> – we answer them every Friday</p><p>⏰ <a href="https://morningcall.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Get our daily politics newsletter</a> every morning</p><p>✍️ <a href="http://saturdayread.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enjoy the best of our writing</a> via email every Saturday</p><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>