Keir Starmer blasts 'arrogant' Government as he hits out at 'Whitehall knows best' attitude

'People just want to know the Prime Minister has a plan'
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer
SplashNews.com
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Sir Keir Starmer today blasted the “arrogant” Government for its “Whitehall knows best” attitude.

The Labour leader warned that ministers must get a grip of the pandemic before it “spirals out of control”.

In an opinion piece for the Telegraph, he said he vowed to be a “constructive opposition” but warned it would only work if the Government is “competent” and learns from its mistakes.

He said: “At the moment the Government is operating under the misguided, arrogant and counterproductive view that ‘Whitehall knows best’, that decisions can be made behind closed doors, without any real consultation or by even picking up the phone to those on the frontline.”

However, a senior government source hit back, telling Playbook: “Keir Starmer should be supporting measures to protect the NHS and save lives instead of playing politics in the middle of a global pandemic.”

In the piece, Sir Keir said people were not “asking for miracles” and just wanted to know that Boris Johnson had a plan and strategy in place.

Starmer: "People aren’t asking for miracles – they just want to know that the Prime Minister has a plan" 
AFP via Getty Images

He also hit out at Number 10 for the number of leaks to journalists in recent days which revealed potential new lockdown measures for the north as well as shutting down pubs and restaurants within days.

Sir Keir added: “It was an act of gross irresponsibility for anonymous Number 10 sources to tell a few newspapers on Thursday about plans to impose further restrictions on millions of people, without any detail, without any consultation and without any statement from the Prime Minister.”

This morning, business minister Nadhim Zahawi denied that any of his colleagues were leaking information to the press.

He told Sky news: “I can promise you that this minister – or no minister - would actually instruct any member of staff to go out and actually brief this stuff out.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in