Mark Sedwill, head of the UK civil service, on Monday pleaded for an end to a Whitehall briefing war that has destabilised Boris Johnson’s government and he claims “besmirches this country’s hard-won reputation for good governance”.
Sir Mark’s letter to colleagues was an attempt to draw a line under tensions that came to a head after the Sunday Times reported the Security Service was withholding information from home secretary Priti Patel because it did not trust her.
The letter was also a coded warning to Mr Johnson’s political allies to stop attacks on senior civil servants after the Sunday Telegraph reported that Number 10 had drawn up a “hit list” of senior mandarins it wanted to fire either because of doubts about their competence or their commitment to reform.
Amid warnings by former ministers and officials that an atmosphere of fear and suspicion in Whitehall is undermining Mr Johnson’s government, Sir Mark’s letter appears to be a rebuke to both civil servants and ministers’ special advisers.
“Candour, confidentiality and courtesy between ministers, special advisers and civil servants are crucial to the trust and confidence on which good governance depends,” Sir Mark wrote.
“Civil servants should at all times be confident they can give the honest, impartial, objective advice on which ministers can rely.
“Both should be confident that this advice, and any debate that surrounds it, will remain private and that everyone will at all times adhere to the high standards set out in the civil service, special adviser and ministerial codes.”
Mr Johnson runs a government sustained by an 80-seat House of Commons majority, but its stability has been shaken as a radical cadre of political officials in Number 10 attempt to bend the Whitehall machine to their will.
Downing Street is seeking to tighten its grip on the permanent secretaries at government departments, and the special advisers — also known as Spads — who are hired by cabinet ministers to provide media and policy support.
At the heart of the drama is Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, who wants to run a strong administration from Number 10, and trusted ministers like Ms Patel.
Mr Cummings’ demand for total control over the government has convulsed the system.
Chancellor Sajid Javid is the highest-profile victim so far, resigning this month rather than agreeing to sack all of his special advisers in a power grab by Number 10.
Special advisers have been told by Mr Cummings to carry out Number 10’s instructions and avoid self-serving briefings on behalf of their ministers, or face possible dismissal.
He warned advisers that half of them could lose their jobs after this month’s ministerial reshuffle by Mr Johnson. “These are tough jobs with long hours,” said one ally of Mr Cummings.
But the anonymous Tory briefings against individual civil servants — supposedly upholders of a long tradition of impartiality and evidence-based advice — has brought Number 10 into conflict with the whole Whitehall machine.
Last week it emerged that Ms Patel wanted to oust the Home Office permanent secretary Philip Rutnam — one of those on Number 10’s alleged “shit list” — while The Times reported claims that she bullied staff. Ms Patel and MI5 denied the claim that the Security Service did not trust her.
Sir Gus O’Donnell, former head of the civil service, said it was vital that officials were able to offer frank advice in private without fear of any kind of retribution.
“It’s not in anyone’s interests to have ‘yes’ men or women there,” he added. “I’m concerned there is so much briefing going on, which is damaging to both sides. It’s important for the government to have a safe space for people to have disagreements and to resolve them in private.”
Damian Green, former deputy prime minister, said he had some sympathy with Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings wanting to shake up the “establishment ways of working in Whitehall” but warned it could go too far.
“It’s always important to let officials and advisers know they can disagree with ministers in private without it being held against them,” he said.
Another former minister described the situation in Whitehall as “completely dysfunctional”.
He said: “What Dominic Cummings doesn’t realise is that it will allow the thing that he hates most to thrive: inertia. Now civil servants will think: there is no point to doing what the minister has asked me to do because Number 10 might stop it.
“He thinks he’s pulling the levers of Number 10, but . . . putting a gun to the head of Spads and threatening mandarins is not a sustainable basis for running a government.”
Some Conservative officials claimed that Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum, appeared to be still in “campaign mode”. “It doesn’t feel sustainable,” said one official. “Something has to give.”
Jill Rutter, senior fellow at the Institute for Government, a think-tank, said it was not uncommon for ministers to fall out with their senior civil servants, but the problem was normally quietly resolved without lurid newspaper headlines by simply moving officials.
Mr Johnson’s team denied it briefed against individual civil servants but argued that former prime ministers including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair gradually brought in senior officials they trusted to enthusiastically deliver government policy.
“It’s not politicising the civil service,” said one aide. “It’s about getting people who can deliver.”
Additional reporting by Helen Warrell in London
