The next question from the media to Starmer is from Beth Rigby at Sky News, who speaks of potential job cuts and cuts to welfare following the PM's statement and asks "if this is not austerity, what is?".

"There's no return to austerity," Starmer responds, saying the government will not go down that route.

On welfare, he highlights the importance of supporting people who want to get back into work, adding that one in eight young people are currently not in work, employment or training.

Rigby also asks Starmer about US-imposed tariffs on aluminium and steel, to which he responds saying he will take a "pragmatic" response - a line he has repeated in the last days.

Image source, Getty Images

NHS England leads the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

The body has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers, which are focused on supporting and overseeing the wider NHS to deliver high quality and effective care.

Its role includes a range of priorities, from working with government to agree funding and priorities for the NHS, to overseeing the delivery of services and negotiating the best possible deals for products and services.

NHS England is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care - this means it is not a government department but it delivers public services using public funding.

NHS England has been on borrowed timepublished at 11:30 Greenwich Mean Time 13 March

11:30 GMT 13 March

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent

NHS England was created as part of the 2012 reforms introduced under former Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley.

The idea was to free the health service from day-to-day political meddling - with ministers instead setting the wider strategy, but stepping back from getting involved on a daily basis.

In the years after NHS England has exercised that independence, most notably under the lead of Sir Simon Stevens, who challenged and pressured Theresa May's government into increasing funding.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, Tory health ministers privately expressed frustration that the single-biggest part of their brief was outside of their control.

As soon as Wes Streeting took charge at the Department of Health and Social Care it was clear he felt the same and NHS England was on borrowed time.

On Monday it was announced half of the roles at NHS England would go – and that came after the chief executive and a number of her top managers announced they would be stepping down.

Much is made of NHS England’s size – with around 13,500 staff it is three times bigger than the department.

But that is partly because two organisations have been merged with it in recent years – Health Education England, responsible for training, and NHS Digital.

Streeting believes this will reduce duplication and bureaucracy – but it is also about control. No longer will NHS bosses be able to keep ministers at arms length.

Chris Mason
Political editor

"The power of government has gone," the prime minister tells me as he takes questions from employees here and from journalists.

Quite the line from the guy running the government.

A sense of levers not working, change not happening quickly enough.

He knows - as he acknowledged to me - that in the end he’ll be judged on whether he can eventually deliver that change.

Hardly surprising that ministers want more control of NHSpublished at 11:27 Greenwich Mean Time 13 March

11:27 GMT 13 March

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Tonally, the press release accompanying the prime minister’s announcement about NHS England is completely fascinating.

Its headline: “World’s largest quango scrapped”.

As well as duplication, Keir Starmer is making an argument about democratic control.

It’s certainly easy to understand politically. Ministers privately say that one of the biggest determinants of whether they win the next general election will be whether NHS waiting lists improve significantly or not.

Given the political risks, it’s hardly surprising that ministers want more control.

There is also a broader philosophical point being made here though – that significant decisions ought to be made by those with democratic authority, that is to say the government.

If that holds for the “world’s largest quango”, though, it surely holds for the less big quangos too. Perhaps more abolitions will come.

In other words, I certainly wouldn’t want to be employed by a quango or arms-length body today.

The BBC's Chris Mason asks Starmer how soon he can turn things around amid a growing sentiment that things don't work anymore.

Starmer says he's never known a moment like this where international insecurity is directly affecting things at home.

But, the PM suggests he's not finger-pointing, and says he thinks politicians have tended to respond to problems through reviews and a "stack of regulation" which then sees power taken away from parliament.

"We should trust ourselves to take those decisions", he explains, adding the government will be held to account for what it does.

Image source, Getty Images

The second question for Starmer focuses on how the government plans to boost investment in innovation.

He responds by saying there is too much regulation and too many regulators.

"I'm not a believer in lowering standards," he says, noting there are also too many inconsistencies in regulation.

Starmer also speaks of the importance of creating a culture where "we're happier and more content" with innovation.

He says the consequences of doing something wrong can be so heavy that people become scared to innovate.

Starmer's first question comes from someone who has a stage 4 cancer diagnosis, and asks about how cutting NHS England will help with stretched staff.

The prime minister says there is a plan in place to reduce waiting lists.

He says "duplication" is among the reasons they are abolishing NHS England which will free up money for the frontline.

A&E waiting times have got worse despite other NHS progresspublished at 11:08 Greenwich Mean Time 13 March

11:08 GMT 13 March

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent

Latest monthly figures show the NHS in England is making gradual progress across a number of areas - but long waits in A&E have got worse.

The waiting list for routine treatments dropped from 7.46m at the end of December to 7.43m at the end of January.

Progress has also been made on cancer waiting times with 67.3% of patients starting treatment within 62 days in January - up from 62.7% during the same month last year.

But it is still well short of the target of 85%. Twelve-hour waits in major A&E over winter (December to February) almost reached 500,000 - meaning 12% of patients who sought help had to wait longer than 12 hours.

The Royal College of Medicine has told the BBC these long waits are putting patients at risk of harm.

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

At the end of a speech long on rhetoric but with little new detail, a proper announcement: the abolition of NHS England in order to bring the management of the NHS back under “democratic control”.

It had been clear for some days that a big reorganisation of the NHS was in the offing. In recent days a string of its most senior leaders, including the chief executive Amanda Pritchard, have announced that they are leaving.

Keir Starmer is making the case that this will avoid excessive duplication between NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care.

There will be lots of questions to follow on how this will work in practice.

One early question may be whether those who work for NHS England and the work they do will now be folded into central government – essentially doing the same work in a new guise -- or whether they are being made redundant.

Starmer concludes his speech saying that this decision will put the NHS back at the heart of government "where it belongs".

He adds that "tough choices" won't stop there.

He is now taking questions - stay with us.

Image source, Getty Images

Chris Mason
Political editor

An announcement from the prime minister just there - abolishing the arms-length body NHS England.

The direction of travel towards this has been clear for a little while.

Last month Amanda Pritchard resigned from NHS England and the government set out that its work and the work of the Department of Health would be brought much closer together.

Now we know how close - the two effectively becoming one.

Keir Starmer announces he is abolishing NHS England and bringing back the NHS "into democratic control".

“I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control, by abolishing the arms-length body NHS England,” he says.

The prime minister suggests some parts of the state didn't get the memo for change in the Labour manifesto.

Starmer then gives an example local to Yorkshire of an office conversion that would create 139 homes.

He says the future of this is uncertain because the regulator was not consulted properly.

People with dreams of owning a home are being held up by red tape, the PM explains.

Starmer makes it clear he's not questioning the dedication of civil servants.

But he says politicians have chosen to hide behind quangos, which he calls a "cottage industry of checkers and blockers" that are funded by taxpayers.

As a reminder, Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations - also known as quangos - are funded by taxpayers but not directly controlled by central government, and include regulators, cultural institutions and advisory bodies.

This system was created by politicians, he says, adding the "buck stops with us".

Image source, Getty Images

Starmer says he believes working people want an "active" government that takes the big decisions so the can "get on with their lives".

They don't want an "over expanding" state, he says, which demands more from people as it fails to deliver.

The prime minister says technology can help with this and that AI is a "golden opportunity we're determined to seize".

Chris Mason
Political editor

This is Keir Starmer, in government, portraying himself as a disrupter.

He is repeatedly railing against what he sees as state failure — a labyrinth of rules and organisations that stand in the way of saying yes to things.

We have, he claims, "a watchdog state completely out of whack with the priorities of the British people".

Starmer says now that he believes in the "power" of government.

He adds that he has seen it "at its best" and references the riots that took place last year in the wake of the Southport attack.

He says the response to that was "dynamic", "strong" and "urgent".

However, he caveats there is a feeling that we don't have that everywhere - adding the state now employs more people than it has for decades.

Yet, he adds, he believes it's "weaker" than it has ever been.

Image source, PA Media

Starmer continues to tout his government's achievements, saying it's the beginning of the delivery that we need.

But, he says that given the levels of global insecurity, now is the time to go "further and faster".

Every pound that we spend, and every regulation and decision must deliver for working people, he says.

The PM describes how this doesn't just mean greater efficiency, but also allowing the state to operate at "maximum power".

This means reforming the state so it is closer to its communities and "tearing down the walls of Westminster", he adds.