Jill Rutter

When a PM is in crisis, what do they do? Sack the head of the civil service. Having lost both his Chief of Staff and Director of Communications at the beginning of the week, Keir Starmer resolved to make it a hat-trick by dispensing with the services of his short-serving Cabinet Secretary. The favourite to

Keir Starmer is preparing to give his big reset speech on Thursday. But the more interesting address is perhaps the one he gave last night at the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet, where the Prime Minister gave his first major speech on foreign policy. The most interesting passage saw Starmer reject the notion that Britain will

Labour is planning to reform the civil service into five ‘missions’ that will lead the agenda, moving away from the purely departmental way of arranging priorities at the moment. Cindy Yu talks to James Heale and Jill Rutter from the Institute for Government and UK In a Changing Europe (and a former civil servant) about

There is anxiety in parts of Starmer’s circle about Sue Gray appointing jobs in a Starmer-led Downing Street. When she’s in No.10 she’ll ‘be in her natural territory and running rings around everyone’, a former colleague told Katy Balls in her profile of ‘the Gray lady’ for The Spectator this week. How is Sue Gray shaking things

The Cabinet Office has published its written statement into the resignation of Sue Gray, stating that it has given a ‘confidential assessment’ to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) about whether she broke civil service rules in taking up a job from Keir Starmer while still a senior civil servant. On the episode, Cindy

Katy Balls, The Spectator’s political editor, writes about the return of Tory sleaze. She’s joined by Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, to discuss the problems piling up for Rishi Sunak and the Tories. (00:50) Also this week, security expert Mark Galeotti writes about why Europe has been reluctant to give Ukraine

The Prime Minister is trying to reform the civil service. He’s not the first to try – so will he succeed? (00:50) The stakes for success are high, as his opponent is no longer Jeremy Corbyn, but the more impressive Keir Starmer. How have Starmer’s first almost 100 days gone? (15:45) And last, how widespread