David Cameron has appointed nine new policy advisers as he scraps his hands-off approach to Whitehall and seeks to assert his grip over Cabinet ministers.
The new team, made up of six Civil Service high-flyers and three experts from the private sector, will “man-mark” government departments and try to head off policy chaos before it hits the headlines. It will also draw up policies for the second half of the parliament, to feature in an updated coalition agreement. Downing Street will write to departments soon telling them who to report to in the new unit.
The team includes “the cream of Whitehall”, according to insiders, including officials from the Treasury and No 10. The three arriving from outside Whitehall include Tim Luke, a former Lehman Brothers analyst, who will cover enterprise, trade and technology. The other two will cover health — the area most concerning Downing Street — and energy and environment. They will all be employed as civil servants so as not to breach Mr Cameron’s selfimposed limit on the number of politically appointed special advisers.
The unit will serve Mr Cameron and Nick Clegg and both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have approved the appointments. It marks an about-turn by Mr Cameron, who entered Downing Street promising to let ministers run their departments without interference from the centre and vowing to end the “control freakery” in No 10 during the Blair-Brown years.
The policy team also completes a radical revamp of the Downing Street machine. Craig Oliver, a BBC executive, started work last week to replace Andy Coulson as communications director. This week, Andrew Cooper, the Populus pollster and a former Tory strategist, began in the newly created role of strategy director. His job will be to give greater coherence to the Government’s policies and themes.
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Although the changes follow hard on the heels of the abandoned forests’ sell-off — the Government’s biggest policy fiasco and U-turn — Mr Cameron realised many months ago that his light touch was not working.
The new policy unit is unlike those that served Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which were almost exclusively staffed by political appointees. The aim has been to “bring knowledge to the centre”, according to insiders, and ensure that Downing Street has early warning of what departments are planning and ensure they follow through on commitments.
The creation of the unit has involved scrapping the strategy unit and merging the new team with the implementation unit. It will be headed by Paul Kirby, a former partner with accountants KPMG, and Kris Murrin, who worked for the Downing Street delivery unit under Mr Blair before helping the Conservatives to draw up their business plans in opposition.
Mr Kirby, the head of policy development, is highly rated by George Osborne, the Chancellor, for whom he did some work while seconded by KPMG in opposition. One of his main tasks will be to ensure that the Government delivers on its commitments to reform of the public services. Ms Murrin, head of policy implementation, is said to excel at “getting things done” and is regarded as collaborative.
The unit has been drawn up under the watch of Jeremy Heywood, the No 10 permanent secretary who is highly valued by Mr Cameron’s team for his enthusiastic approach to reforms of the Civil Service. Mr Cameron laid bare his frustrations with the service at the weekend, echoing Mr Blair’s complaint that he bore “scars on my back” from trying to force change through a reluctant Whitehall.
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Last night the leader of the top civil servants’ union hit out at Mr Cameron and said his complaints about “bureaucrats” would do little to boost flagging morale. Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA, said the criticisms had been “poorly received by civil servants”.