What is Keir Starmer’s new plan for government reform?

This Institute for Government webinar brought instant expert analysis of the prime minister’s plans to radically overhaul the British state.

Ahead of his speech, Keir Starmer told officials he wants to unshackle them from bureaucracy to stop their talent being "constrained”, and to create an “agile, mission-focused and more productive” civil service.

But planned job cuts across the civil service and a clampdown on quangos and regulators have seen the government’s reform blueprint dubbed “Operation Chainsaw” – echoing Elon Musk’s DOGE plans for reforming the US government.

So what is in the PM’s plan? What will it mean for delivering Labour’s missions and its milestones? What should civil servants expect in the coming weeks and months? And how can Whitehall leaders best put the government’s reform agenda into action?

To discuss these questions and more, we were joined by an expert panel including:

Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government

Dr Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government

Hannah Keenan, Associate Director at the Institute for Government

The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.

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