Civil service is ‘too remote’ from people’s lives across UK, says minister

Whitehall must work more with frontline services as part of plans to move offices from London, says Georgia Gould

The Whitehall civil service is too remote from people's lives and needs to be turned inside out" as part of plans to drive three of Keir Starmer's missions from outside London, a Cabinet Office minister has said.

Georgia Gould, a former leader of Camden council who had a meteoric rise after her election as a Labour MP last year, said the government's plan to move thousands more civil service jobs out of London was not about just having offices in places" - and Whitehall civil servants needed to be more familiar with the day-to-day problems in frontline services from health centres to family hubs.