Boris Johnson should be able to appoint ministers from outside parliament, report says Ashley Cowburn Report also suggests creating new ‘working office’ outside No 10 for prime ministers - EPA Boris Johnson and his successors in No 10 should be given powers to appoint outsiders instead of just MPs and peers as ministers, a new report examining reform of Whitehall has urged. The controversial proposal forms one of the recommendations put forward by the Commission for Smart Government – set up last year to consider how the machinery of government can be more effective. In a stark warning, the independent body – chaired by former Conservative minister Nick Herbert with commissioners including the Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge – says Whitehall “must reform itself, or fail” to deliver major policy goals, such as “levelling up” and net zero emissions by 2050.