“Government can do things in crises. I think the starting point has got to be for government to realize just how close we are to so many crises, and start acting in accordance that we are in one,” McSweeney said.
“Too much has been delegated to and spent on arm’s-length bodies over the years, which has deliberately weakened the government as a way of trying to bridge the trust gap with the public,” he said. “I think at the center, people don’t realize that it’s not that the public are impatient; it’s that they have no time.”
He claimed the “center” of government is “too weak” and should be strengthened. In his only reference to new prime minister Andy Burnham — who replaced Starmer amid turmoil in the governing party this summer — McSweeney said the “new prime minister was right to make the cabinet secretary stronger in the center.” Burnham is reportedly planning to give Antonia Romeo, Britain’s top civil servant, more legal powers in legislation expected next year.
McSweeney also expressed frustration with the technological constraints on day-to-day working in Downing Street — claiming those in government cannot use non-state-approved large language models on government devices or “download the best apps to make yourself as effective as possible.” He said Google apps cannot be used in No. 10.
“If you’ve lived your whole life and connected it all via Google, you’re in trouble,” he said. “I find that I’m far more productive outside of government than I was inside of government.”
The former top strategist claimed too that he personally secured Downing Street staff the right to “copy and paste” text while working in the building or using government devices.
“The most successful political battle I won in No. 10 about the use of technology was to allow us to copy and paste,” he said. “Took me about six months, built quite a coalition.”
“I just refused to leave the office of the people whose decision it was, when they said they were reviewing it for the second time,” he added.