Labour reset PM gives Whitehall 'a shake' amid frustration at progress

It was a reset designed to invigorate Keir Starmer's premiership in the wake of flagging opinion polls, a scandal over the former transport secretary and worries about the economy.

- Rowena Mason

The prime minister gave a speech setting out new milestones - fleshing out the missions of his government with targets on reducing NHS waiting lists, getting named bobbies on the beat and raising living standards.

The targets are all aimed at being sold to the public on the doorstep who desperately want to see material improvements in their lives after being promised "change" from 14 years of the Tories at the July election.

But alongside the targets, Starmer also gave off a clear impression that he thinks one of the main problems frustrating change is one of process, rather than policy: roadblocks caused by the civil service.

As the Institute for Government put it afterwards: "Unusually for such a public speech, Starmer time and again returned to internal questions of process and delivery. As well as trying to emphasise the scale of the government's ambition, he was giving the public sector - and the civil service in particular - a shake."

Labour advisers and politicians have for months been complaining that they did not realise how difficult it was to effect change while in government. It has become a common refrain that "Jacob Rees-Mogg had a point on some things" or "Dominic Cummings was right".