Starmer says he will chair ‘mission delivery boards’ to meet manifesto pledges

The panels are intended to aid cross-department work on Labour’s five national missions.

Labour is looking to overhaul Whitehall to deliver its missions (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Archive)

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to personally chair new “mission delivery boards” to “put into action” Labour’s manifesto commitments.

The cross-departmental panels are expected to be set up to make progress on the party’s five key pledges – to drive economic growth, reform the NHS, invest in clean energy, reform the crime and justice system, and improve opportunity through a new skills agenda.

The Prime Minister said he would head the boards himself to emphasise his focus on pursuing the plans central to Labour’s first term in government.

Sir Keir Starmer said ‘mission delivery boards’ would be established to deliver on his party’s priorities (Claudia Greco/PA) (PA Wire)

After the first gathering of his top team, Sir Keir told a Downing Street press conference on Saturday: “At the Cabinet meeting I also discussed mission delivery, how we would put into action the plans that we have set out in our manifesto, and that we will have mission delivery boards to drive through the change that we need, and that I will be chairing those boards to make sure that it’s clear to everyone that they are my priority in Government.”

The entities are expected to draw on private sector expertise and could include outside experts as well as politicians.

Sir Keir’s chief of staff Sue Gray, who spent years at the top of the Civil Service, is set to oversee delivery from inside No 10.

The Whitehall shake-up is intended to break down departmental silos in a bid to reduce funding rows and delays to implementing policies.

Labour has said the five national missions would “guide us in government”, which would be reorganised to be “more agile, empowering, and catalytic”.

The party last year said: “Missions require departments to work together to achieve shared missions.

“The old model of departments working in silos, competing for central government focus needs to be replaced with a genuine joined-up approach.

“This means collective agreement on the government’s objectives and how best to deploy time, attention and resources to meet them.

“This could mean new structures and ways of working to facilitate collaboration, including replacing some of the cabinet committees with new delivery-focused cross-cutting mission boards.”