Labour planning to balloon size of state with dozens of new quangos, warn Tories

Labour would create dozens of new quangos costing tens of millions of pounds as part of a “ballooning” in the size of the state, new analysis suggests.

The Tories have looked at Labour’s policy announcements in order to create a list of new arm’s length bodies planned by Sir Keir Starmer.

For example, the Labour leader has promised an Office for Value for Money which he said would “chase down every penny we spend”.

And Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has promised to launch a National Wealth Fund “so that when we invest in new industries, in partnership with business the British people will own a share of that wealth and the taxpayer will get a return on that investment”.

A new publicly owned clean energy company, Great British Energy, would also be set up to help pursue net zero.

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, has pledged an independent Integrity and Ethics Commission to “stamp out corruption in government, strengthen the rules and ensure they are enforced”, while a new quango, Skills England, would “oversee the national effort to meet the skills needs of the coming decade across all regions”.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow trade secretary, has said that a Labour government will create a “nationwide network of Climate Export Hubs” to “work with businesses, universities and other innovators, to take UK climate science innovations and export them to the world”.

And Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, is planning “community payback boards”, where victims of crime would oversee community sentences, choose the unpaid work to be done by offenders and make sure that sentences are carried out in full.

Over in health. Labour’s national “mission” to “build an NHS fit for the future” proposes a “mission delivery board”, which would have a role “akin to the Climate Change Committee”.

Plethora of proposed task forces

In other cases, it is unclear whether policies proposed by Labour constitute fully fledged arm’s length bodies or internal units within Whitehall.

For example, the party has promised a plethora of different task forces, including a National Cladding Taskforce, Illicit Finance Taskforce and a supply chain taskforce.

Elsewhere, the party is backing the creation of quangos that are already part of Tory Government policy, such as an independent regulator for English football. The Conservatives said that Labour’s policies reflected a “never-ending obsession with bureaucracy and ballooning the size of the state”.

It is unclear how much the new bodies would cost in aggregate, but the Tories pointed to the £3.9 million annual budget of the Office for Budget Responsibility – the watchdog upon which the Office for Value for Money is based – as an indication of the cost of individual quangos.

‘Hell bent’ on having millions of officials

Commenting on the Office for Value for Money, Greg Hands, the Tory chairman, said: “This is classic Labour – proposing to set up an entire government agency to do what the Cabinet should be doing - looking after taxpayers’ money.”

He went on: “They are incapable of making a decision – or sticking to one – which is why they are hell bent on having millions of officials to rely on to stuff government with process, process, process.”

Mr Hands added: “The Conservatives streamlined government after Labour last left office – saving taxpayers’ billions of pounds helping us deliver on our priorities to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.”

According to the Cabinet Office, there are currently 295 arm’s length bodies, accounting for over £220 billion of taxpayer’s money.

The Tories have repeatedly pledged to reduce the size of the state.

In last summer’s leadership contest, Rishi Sunak’s campaign promised to “demand greater savings from quangos”, while his rival Liz Truss took aim at “too many bureaucratic bodies” which she claimed were diverting money from frontline services.

A Labour Party spokesperson said:  “This is a laughable attack from a party that cannot defend its own track record, has no solution to the cost of living crisis and apparently now cannot even do their own sums properly.

“Labour’s plans will tackle the dysfunction and waste that have set in after 13 years of Tory rule. For too long, working people have paid the price for their failures.

“Labour will use existing resources better to tackle the long-term problems we face as a country while investing in the industries of the future, ending the sticking plaster politics of this Conservative government and saving taxpayers money.”