Making civil servants take the fall for government incompetence is a cowardly deflection

Boris Johnson wants power without responsibility or accountability – an extraordinary level of meddling undermines our civil service when we need it most

Helen Hayes
Thursday 10 September 2020 12:18 EDT
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Boris Johnson planning ‘seismic’ changes to civil service, Tory adviser says

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It’s been quite the start of term for the government, shedding its fifth permanent secretary in six short months. 

Jonathan Slater’s exit in August from the Department for Education (flanked just weeks later by the departure of the UK’s top legal civil servant Jonathan Jones) followed in the footsteps of Richard Heaton at the Ministry of Justice. Then there’s Philip Rutnam’s claim of constructive dismissal from the Home Office, and the departure of Simon McDonald at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Mark Sedwill as head of the civil service and national security adviser.

As if this spate of senior resignations wasn’t enough, when announcing Slater’s departure, the government said that it was the prime minister, Boris Johnson, who had concluded that a change of leadership was needed. It was not the secretary of state for education or the head of the civil service – who might be expected to have made such an announcement – but the prime minister himself.

On the most benign interpretation, this represents an extraordinary level of meddling by the prime minister and his most senior advisers in the civil service, when they have a whole slew of critical issues they should be focusing their energies on.

This pattern of behaviour also highlights a concerning trend on this government’s accountability – both on how it governs and how it interacts with others. Its treatment of the civil service is the most symbolic indicator of a government that wants the credit for everything – without taking responsibility for anything.

With civil servants having no right of reply in the public domain, we cannot forget that accountability for policy decisions sits squarely with ministers. The buck for the chaos and incompetence in the A-level grading fiasco (which ministers were given plenty of warning on) stops with the prime minister and the education secretary, who have utterly failed to fulfil their promises to parents, students and teachers.

Making civil servants take the fall for this is a cowardly act of deflection – almost as cowardly as publicly undermining them in the press before they leave their posts.

This lack of accountability is also seen in the government’s approach to public sector contracts during coronavirus, which appears to be based on who they know, not who is best placed to deliver what the country needs. Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent on contracts linked to Tory donors and friends.

Any reasonable challenge from within the conservative party, government or ministerial ranks, is immediately shut down. Nowhere is this illustrated more succinctly than the circumstances surrounding the appointment of the chancellor of the exchequer. Let’s not forget that Rishi Sunak arrived in his role only after Sajid Javid refused to jettison his own team of advisers in exchange for one appointed by Dominic Cummings.

There is disturbing evidence of how deep this culture runs, with a survey of Cabinet Office staff exposing the current workings of the government department – with two in five staff in the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit giving negative responses on the way they are managed. Newly appointed Simon Case will start his role with a full in-tray, with bullying allegations against Priti Patel – which she denies – one of the many urgent issues at the top. Restoring care and morale for our civil servants is next on the list. The prime minister’s desire to interfere in the civil service does not appear to extend to any concern for staff safety and welfare.

Political interference and summary dismissals at the behest of the PM undermines our civil service, and even where reform is needed will make things worse not better, resulting in staff leaving and making it harder to recruit the best possible talent from a diverse range of backgrounds in future.

We are facing huge changes in the coming months. The government has much to do to prepare us for leaving the single market and customs union. And the double pressure of Covid-19 this winter means that we need our civil servants more than ever.  This treatment of them is not only demoralising and deflating, but damaging to good governance of our country.

At a time of national crisis, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings’ approach to the civil service and governance in general reveals a cabinet lacking in creativity and independent thought – and a prime minister who wants power without responsibility or accountability, while the carnage of incompetence continues to pile up around him.

Helen Hayes is shadow minister for the Cabinet Office and Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood

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