Prime Ministers deserve a nicer house and we deserve better government Opinion The nerve centre of the British state, 10 Downing Street, is fantastically ill-suited to the needs of a modern Prime Minister and to the interests of the country. An excellent piece by Politico last week lifted the lid on what it’s actually like to work in this rather dilapidated Georgian townhouse, with one former No [...]
Rayner out: What is happen next for Labour’s cabinet? Politics Following Angela Rayner’s resignation from her roles as deputy prime minister, housing secretary, and deputy leader of the Labour Party, what are the following steps to replace her? Rayner admitted to having underpaid stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat in Hove, and referred herself to the ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus on Wednesday. On Friday, [...]
Government consultants pledge under threat as spending jumps Politics Government spending on management consultants rose by over £150m during Labour’s first year in office, despite the party’s manifesto pledge to halve the amount departments dish out to third party advisers, City AM can reveal. Total spending on management consultancy contracts totalled £1.44bn during the first 12 months of the government’s four-year term, up from [...]
Welfare: Starmer’s authority shattered as Reeves faces £5bn headache July 2, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has suffered a devastating hit to his authority whilst a £5bn spending headache looms for Rachel Reeves following the government’s u-turn to avoid a catastrophic defeat of its welfare bill. Just days away from his one year anniversary in Downing Street, the PM faced the most substantial backbench rebellion of his premiership [...]
Labour’s regional growth plan sees 12,000 civil servants moved outside London May 14, 2025 The government is on a mission to relocate 12,000 civil servant jobs across the UK to save taxpayers money — to the tune of £94m a year by 2032. Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told the BBC this morning he hopes relocating civil servants “will make this government one that better reflects the country it [...]
Cabinet Office to shed 2,100 jobs as government shrinks civil service April 10, 2025 The Cabinet Office will lose almost a third of its staff as Labour seeks to shrink the civil service, the government has announced. Around 1,200 jobs will go through redundancies and leavers not being replaced under plans unveiled to civil servants on Thursday, with another 900 transferred to other departments. The 2,100 job cuts represent [...]
Stats body aims to publish key jobs data in late 2026 April 10, 2025 The UK’s official statistics body has set a target of November 2026 for the reform of its flagship Labour Force Survey (LFS), which monitors the UK jobs market. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been dogged by several troubles in data gathering, prompting criticism from the Bank of England as well as an intervention [...]
Probe launched into ONS governance and data quality April 1, 2025 The government has launched an independent investigation into the UK’s beleaguered statistics watchdog to ascertain how its official data and surveys have become so unreliable. The remit of the probe – commissioned by the Cabinet Office and UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) – will span the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) culture, leadership and structure, and [...]
Cabinet Office to make hundreds of Civil Service redundancies December 12, 2024 Hundreds of jobs are set to be cut by the Cabinet Office, it has been confirmed, in a move which the government department said will create a “smaller, clearer structure”. A total of 400 jobs have been placed at risk at the department which is responsible for a range of functions across government. The Cabinet [...]
Grenfell-linked firms awarded £350m in public sector contracts since fire September 17, 2024 Companies linked to the Grenfell fire have been awarded over £350m in public sector contracts since the building tragically caught fire seven years ago, a new analysis of public sector contracts has revealed. Figures shared with City A.M. showed that Saint-Gobain, Rydon and Kingspan – which all had connections to the fire – have between [...]