Lord Kerslake, one of his peers and a former head of the civil service, said the new chancellor’s move to remove Tom Scholar as permanent secretary as his first act in office was “quite disgraceful” and a “retrogressive and worrying” step . Speaking to the Guardian, Kerslake said the government appeared to be moving towards a “new way of behaving”, which could stop senior officials being willing to challenge and damage public confidence that ministers are getting the best advice. He said that usually new ministers would seek to work with permanent secretaries and only in rare cases would they decide that they could not work together after a period of time. “What seems to have happened here is that they had a view of what they perceived to be his approach to the political side of things and decided they didn’t want to have that kind of strong advice on the issues,” Kerslake said. “That’s exactly what senior civil servants are there for. Even more than before, senior civil servants will be nervous about this and worry that strong advice is interpreted as political differences with their policies. Contact the team securely: create a Protonmail account and email us at [email protected]. or use Signal Messenger or WhatsApp to send a message to +44 7824 537227. “It marks a new level of the growing tendency to blame civil servants and fire them, and basically say they want a senior civil servant who aligns with our personal views. I think that’s really problematic, really… I think there will be a chilling effect and the wider world will be less confident that decisions will be made on the basis of strong advice.” Kerslake joins a growing chorus of former permanent secretaries expressing dismay at Kwarteng’s decision to remove Scholar, a highly experienced and respected civil servant, after Truss hit out at her leadership campaign on “Treasury thinking”. The move was designed to send a message that Kwarteng wants a new direction at the Ministry of Finance that focuses on promoting growth above all else. Truss is believed to have personally ordered the sacking, but did not entertain the idea of removing Simon Case as cabinet secretary. But there is anger among sitting permanent secretaries that Case kept his job despite overseeing the Partygate scandal and not fighting against Scholar’s sacking. Some in Whitehall refer disparagingly to him as a “courtier” in a reference to his past advising royals, and a perceived reluctance to defend the civil service in the face of political attacks and threatened cuts to 91,000 jobs. Simon MacDonald, a former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, said on Wednesday that ministers sacking their top official on their first day in office was “unwise and unconstitutional, but the government has discovered it can do what it wants with the public administration. he has no strength to resist.” “Pensioners complain, but so what? Parliament must act,” he added. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. David Normington, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) and the Home Office, wrote in The Times that Kwarteng and Truss “sent a clear message to the civil service that they are not interested in unbiased advice and intend to surround themselves with yes” men and women”. Lord Butler and Lord Gus O’Donnell, two former cabinet secretaries, last week expressed disapproval of Kwarteng’s move, while Richard Wilson, a former cabinet secretary under Tony Blair, told the Independent on Wednesday: “To summarily fire a key top official, judged by most to be outstanding, at this time is destabilizing. It can affect morale. there has already been a painful loss of talent over the past decade.” It is not known whether Scholar will be paid, but Jonathan Slater, a former permanent secretary at the DfE, received more than £250,000 after being asked to leave his role in 2020. No 10 does not comment on the controversy during the period of national mourning. But Scholar’s sacking was defended by Theodore Agnew, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who wrote in The Times that “Sir Tom Scholar’s removal as Principal Permanent Secretary to the Treasury should be cause for celebration”. “Whether it was spontaneous and passive resistance to the creation of a Treasury office in the north, which he fiercely resisted, or the failed arrangements to build recovery loans during the pandemic, all roads led back to him,” he said. he said.
