Sir Keir Starmer’s former strategy chief has blown the lid on a “weird obsession” plaguing Britain’s civil service.
Paul Ovenden has launched a scathing attack on Whitehall, accusing civil servants of being consumed by “fringe” obsessions – leaving Sir Keir’s Government “emasculated” as result.
The ex-No10 aide, writing in The Times in his first public remarks since leaving Downing Street in disgrace last year, has warned Labour has been taken captive by a “Stakeholder State” that has shifted “politics and power away from voters”.
Mr Ovenden served as one of the Prime Minister’s longest-standing advisers during opposition and in government.
He resigned after a book revealed messages from 2017 containing sexualised jokes about senior Labour MP Diane Abbott.
But he is said to remain close to No10 figures, including chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – commonly billed as the PM’s right-hand man.
Mr Ovenden specifically poured scorn on the Government’s efforts to secure the release of Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah from jail in his homeland.
He described the case as a “running joke” among No10 advisers – and a symptom of “the sheer weirdness of how Whitehall spends its time”.
The former aide accused the civil service of being preoccupied by “political folderol” or nonsense.
He said colleagues viewed the El-Fattah case as a “totem of the ceaseless sapping of time and energy by people obsessed with fringe issues”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has been left ’emasculated’ by civil servants, Paul Ovenden said
|
DOWNING STREET
He added that he was “surprised” to hear the activist’s release described as a “priority” for the Government.
The “extremist” has faced criticism over his “anti-British” social media posts, as well as ones which appeared to endorse violence against “Zionists” and police.
Mr Ovenden blamed the “supremacy of the Stakeholder State” for the PM’s difficulties in power, describing a government that “rows with muffled oars in order to appease a complex coalition of campaign groups, regulators, litigators, trade bodies and well-networked organisations”.
He went on to warn that excessive regulation and official obstruction are blocking Labour from fulfilling its manifesto promises.
Mr Ovenden specifically poured scorn on the Government’s efforts to secure the release of Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah
|
GETTYMinisters spent time lobbying quangos to dilute their own housing and infrastructure commitments.
“If the language of priorities is the religion of socialism, then consultations and reviews are the sacred texts of the Stakeholder State,” he wrote.
In his New Year’s mesage, Sir Keir himself expressed “frustration about the pace of change” in Britain.
And last month he told MPs: “Every time I go to pull a lever there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations, [and] arm’s-length bodies that mean that the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be.”
WATCH: Keir Starmer promises ‘positive change’ in New Year’s message
Now, Mr Ovenden has urged ministers to use Labour’s mandate to abolish the triple lock and overhaul Britain’s benefits system.
He also called for rolling back new business regulations and cutting green energy subsidies.
“We don’t have to keep picking the pockets of the productive parts of our economy in order to fund inflation-busting pension increases for millionaires or an unsustainable welfare system,” he wrote.
“We don’t have to strangle small businesses at birth with regulatory burdens.
“We don’t have to fatten the pockets of wind-turbine operators by paying them not to produce energy.
“We don’t have to import antisemitic Islamists who wish us harm. And we certainly don’t have to treat British citizenship as a scrap of paper. On all this and more, we can simply choose not to,” Mr Ovenden concluded.