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Sir Keir Starmer is taking a firmer grip of his five missions for government by launching indepth “stock take” meetings to interrogate the progress that key cabinet ministers and mandarins have made.
The crunch meetings are designed to apply pressure from the centre of government but also identify problems that need solving and highlight areas where Downing Street can offer additional support.
Allies of Starmer say the move shows he is grasping his core governing programme with greater focus, after a turbulent first 100 days that were rocked by infighting and negative briefings in Downing Street that culminated in the exit of his chief of staff Sue Gray this month.
He kicked off his first “stock take” last week when he went into the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for an in-depth update on his green energy mission, which lasted almost two hours, according to officials.
The meeting involved an “interrogation” of energy secretary Ed Miliband, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office head of mission delivery Clara Swinson, the green energy mission control lead Chris Stark, and advisers.
Sir Michael Barber, who headed the Downing Street delivery unit under Tony Blair, was also present. He was drafted back into Whitehall by Starmer last month in an unpaid role to aid the delivery of the missions.
Starmer was shown dashboards charting the progress of green energy projects across the country in the department’s clean power mission control room, before discussing how to remove barriers in the planning system.
The meeting centred heavily on speeding up environmental consent programmes and considered offering greater support to environmental regulators so they can move quicker.
Prime ministerial “stock takes” of the other four missions — which span delivering economic growth, improving the NHS, reducing crime and removing barriers to opportunity — are scheduled to take place by the end of the year.
One government figure said the meetings aimed to remind cabinet ministers and mandarins leading the missions that Number 10 is “carefully monitoring output and wants to push on with the agenda”.
However, a Downing Street official said the tone was positive — seeking to identify opportunities and resolve challenges, and that the extensive activity among civil servants ahead of these stock take meetings was also important in giving impetus to policy delivery.
“It’s in line with what cabinet members expect from the PM,” the official said, adding: “It’s reflective of how he talked in the campaign — we haven’t got a day to waste.”
Alex Thomas, programme director at the Institute for Government think-tank, said the interventions are “exactly the sort of thing Starmer should be doing to get a grip of the agenda and to hold ministers accountable for policy ideas they’re coming up with, as well as the policy execution”. He called the tactic “straight from the Blair playbook”.
He warned against allowing the process to spark antagonism between the centre and departments, however, but said the participation of former delivery unit head Barber gave him confidence.
“He’s the PM’s enforcer from the centre, but he also puts himself on the side of the department as a fixer and as someone who can unblock the problems they’re facing.”