The civil service must prove its impartiality after Britain’s decision to quit the European Union, in order to push back against critics who believe it is staffed by “morons”, according to leading eurosceptic MP Bernard Jenkin.
During a heated referendum campaign, some of those making the case for Britain to leave the EU accused the civil service of unfairly favouring the remain campaign.
Although remaining in the EU was the official policy of the government, Brexit campaigners took issue with cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood’s guidance limiting the official support given to pro-Brexit ministers, and attacked the use of public funds to send a leaflet to households warning of the risks of leaving the EU.
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In the wake of Britain’s decision to back Brexit, Jenkin — who serves as chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee — told an Institute for Government (IfG) event on Thursday that he had faith in Whitehall’s ability to “turn on a sixpence” and implement the referendum result.
But he warned that there were many figures in the Leave camp who were waiting for the civil service to fail.
“I’m telling you there are people who are looking for the system to ride for a fall because they want a different system. I want to defeat those people. I want to keep the Northcote-Trevelyan system" — Bernard Jenkin
“My first message conveyed back to the present cabinet secretary is, ‘I believe you can do this, but there’s plenty of people who think you can’t.’
“I was in a meeting this morning where some people were saying, literally somebody who has worked in Whitehall was saying, “They’re all incompetent, they’re all morons, they can’t think in front of their noses and they all ought to be got rid of and replaced”.
He added: “There is this agenda and it’s a view held, even by some who are ministers, that we should have a much more American system. And I think this is a very important moment for the civil service from that point of view.”
Jenkin said the civil service now had to “prove it is, in the cabinet secretary’s terms, impartial” and that it would “serve the new policy just as it served the old policy”.
“I think it’s such an important opportunity for the civil service for to demonstrate that the Northcote-Trevelyan model actually works.”
Jenkin was challenged by one member of the IfG audience, who questioned whether trust could really be rebuilt after a fractious referendum campaign.
The PACAC chair replied by launching a spirited defence of the civil service, saying:“I think the civil service can do this, I believe in our civil servants.
“I’m telling you there are people who are looking for the system to ride for a fall because they want a different system. I want to defeat those people. I want to keep the Northcote-Travelyan system.”
Jenkin said he wanted Heywood — who was brought before PACAC during the campaign to justify his limits on support for ministers in favour of quitting the EU — to stay in post.
“I think he can do the job,” Jenkin said, adding: “I believe when we have a government that wants to deliver a Brexit policy […] the civil service will deliver. I believe they will deliver. I have faith in the system and I’m saying actually that this is the moment for the system to again prove its worth.
“If trust doesn't develop we will be hobbling ourselves when the country is looking to Whitehall, political and official, to take up huge challenges" — Julian McCrae, Institute for Government
“I remember [historian] Peter Hennessy said there are three people that made the civil service what it is today. The Kaiser, Adolf Hitler and Margaret Thatcher. I believe this is going to be one of those great occasions that is going to define the civil service.”
The need for strong bonds of trust to be built between the civil service and its incoming political masters was also highlighted by the IfG’s deputy director Julian Mcrae, who stressed that in Whitehall, politics was “always the determinant of what ultimately happens”.
“It is ministers and politicians who will set the tone for that relationship,” he said. “And that relationship, given the situation, is bound to be challenging. It’s going to be challenging for everyone, but there has to be space inside that to allow for trusted relationships to rapidly develop.
“If they don’t develop we will be hobbling ourselves when the country is looking to Whitehall, political and official, to take up huge challenges.”