Two of the frontrunners to replace Keir Starmer went to war over the power of the blob today in a sign they could be setting out their stalls to replace the Prime Minister.

Wes Streeting mounted a furious defence of civil servants against Labour critics – including the PM – who have accused them of frustrating government attempts to improve Britain. 

The Health Secretary warned his own party not to ‘parrot’ arguments made by the Tories and Reform about ‘stakeholder capture’ of the government.

He used a speech at the Institute for Government (IfG) conference to warn that the attacks risked harming the party yet further because it suggested it was impotent to change anything. 

Sir Keir spoke of his ‘frustration’ at the slow pace of change late last year and one of his former aides earlier this month went public with his own criticism of the ‘stakeholder state’.

But hours later, speaking at the same event, Mr Burnham, the former minister turned Greater Manchester mayor, lashed out at the ‘unelected state’, saying it was hindering growth and the devolution of power to the regions.

Both men have been linked with moves to replace Sir Keir – with Mr Streeting suggested as a candidate if Labour does badly in May’s local elections.

Mr Burnham, meanwhile, is said to be looking for a Westminster seat to become available in a by-election so he can return to the top table of politics.

Mr Streeting’s pointed attack came after Paul Ovenden, a former adviser to the PM, decried ‘the gradual but decisive shift of politics and power away from voters’.

Mr Ovenden urged Sir Keir and his Labour Government to show a ‘stiffened spine and renewed purpose’ to ‘dismantle much of the Stakeholder State quickly’. 

 It came after the PM himself used a 2024 speech to warn that ‘too many people in Whitehall are comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline’.

And late last year he spoke of ‘frustration that every time I go to pull a lever, there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations and arm’s length bodies that mean the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be’.

But speaking at the IfG, without referencing Mr Ovenden by name, Mr Streeting said: ‘They complain about the civil service. They blame stakeholder capture. 

‘This excuses culture does the centre-left no favours.  If we tell the public that we can’t make anything work, then why on earth would they vote to keep us in charge?’

Hours later Mr Burnham was asked about his views on the row. He criticised having to ‘fight endlessly’ in an ‘attritional battle’ with Whitehall departments who are ‘resisting’ growth-driving devolution as he called for a Westminster overhaul.

Speaking virtually on a panel on civil service reform, the mayor of Greater Manchester said: ‘It’s not justified, I don’t think, for departments still to be resisting devolution. Devolution is the direction. Devolution is bringing growth, not just here, but in other city regions as well.

‘So, why are they allowed just to make us fight endlessly? You know, it’s attritional. We spend so much of our time making the case for devolution to the parts of the system that don’t want it.’

He continued: ‘The unelected state – Whitehall – currently holds too much power.

‘Indeed, in my experience of 16 years in Westminster, the whip system disempowers the elected state, because often MPs are required to rubber-stamp the long-held departmental positions.

‘I personally believe the answer to this, to a more functional Britain, is a major reform of the elected state – Westminster – to mirror what’s being done now in the local state, out in the world that I’m in, which is about place-based, mission-oriented delivery, very much focused around growth.’

Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride will use a speech at the same conference later to say more civil servants should be fired if found to be performing poorly. 

He is expected to say: ‘When it comes to accountability, in some departments performance reviews are rare and dismissals for poor performance are almost non-existent. That’s across half a million employees.

‘Either our civil servants are all vastly better at their jobs than people in the private sector, or a lot more civil servants should be losing their jobs than is currently the case.’

At the start of January, Mr Ovenden claimed the system was set up to the benefit of ‘groups with the time, money and institutional access to make themselves too important to ignore’.

‘Once you start noticing it, you see it everywhere: in the democratic powers handed to arm’s-length bodies or the many small Government departments too powerless or captured to resist lobbying efforts,’ he added.

‘The Stakeholder State ferments between the NGO and the campaign group, the celebrity letter-writing campaign and the activist lawyers.

‘It is given voice by political podcasts where everyone violently agrees. It is canonised through a corrupted honours system.’

Mr Streeting also used his speech to say the Government should aim to ‘get it right’ the first time, amid a slew of political U-turns.

He insisted feedback was the ‘breakfast of champions’ when discussing recent Government climbdowns during an appearance at the Institute for Government conference in central London.

The Treasury is currently understood to be preparing a support package for the pub industry following an outcry over the impact of a major hike in business rates.

The move is the latest in a series of U-turns from the Government, which has also backed down on major welfare reforms due to pressure from backbenchers, and has partially scaled back inheritance tax on farms following lobbying by the sector.

Mr Streeting was asked whether U-turns were slowing the Government down, but told delegates: ‘Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

‘We love to hear it and if people think we’re getting it wrong – and we think that they’re right – far better to do the right thing rather than to spare one’s political blushes.’

He added: ‘In the NHS, we have an initiative called GIRFT – get it right first time.

‘That should be our new year’s resolution for 2026 – let’s try and get it right first time.’

On the NHS, Mr Streeting said progress was being made but there was still much more to do.

‘On our best days, there will still have been patients on trolleys in corridors being treated in conditions that fall short of my ambitions and expectations for our health service,’ he said.

‘Just as on our worst days there are still outstanding episodes of care being delivered by dedicated people.

‘In the 18 months that I’ve had the privilege of leading the largest public service in the world and the largest corner of the British state, I’ve sought to get the balance right – being proud of our progress without overselling the success and being honest about our shortcomings and challenges without fuelling pessimism and defeatism.’

Mr Streeting said he never forgets that ‘the British state is like a shopping trolley with a slightly wonky front wheel that will always orientate to the status quo unless it is steered in the right direction’.

Arguing that reform was needed, the Health Secretary said the state is inefficient at a time when resources are limited.

‘People are paying more in tax, but getting a poorer service in return,’ he said.

‘From Whitehall down, the state has become too reactive – paying the highest price at the latest stage instead of preventing problems earlier and cheaper.

‘It’s penny wise and pound foolish.’