Brexit minister David Jones has defended the civil service after veteran Eurosceptic MP Bill Cash questioned whether there would be a Whitehall effort to “get in the way” of the decision to leave the European Union.
Speaking to MPs on the European Scrutiny Committee Jones, the minister of state at the Department for Exiting the European Union, said he had “no doubt whatever in the loyalty of the civil service” to implementing Brexit.
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Cash, the chair of the committee and a prominent leave campaigner, highlighted that many former civil servants who now sit in the House of Lords had voted to amend the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act when it was before them earlier this month.
He characterised this as the former senior civil servants in the Upper Chamber having “voted against the House of Commons” by supporting amendments to the legislation, which included an effort to guarantee the right of EU citizens to remain in the UK once the exit process is confirmed. Although these were later overturned by MPs, this “strongly suggests to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear that Sir Humphrey in the civil service, quite clearly at the very highest level, did not want the House of Commons to be supreme in these matters”, he said.
Cash asked whether Jones could confirm that the “civil service is doing everything in its power to assist ministers", that acceptance of Brexit is “embedded in the thinking of the civil service” and there would be “no attempts whatever to get in the way”.
Jones, who campaigned for a leave vote, told Cash he had never been in doubt of the civil service’s willingness to implement the decision.
“You know my background in the Brexit debate and I am sure that you will accept it when I tell you that I have never had any doubt whatever as to the loyalty of the civil service and their complete willingness and determination to follow the instructions of ministers and to support ministers in this regard,” he replied. “I think the UK civil service is a great asset to this country and I’m really glad that we have got them on our side in these negotiations.”
The session took place after prime minister Theresa May announced she would trigger the Article 50 exit process on 29 March.
Responding to this announcement, FDA assistant general secretary Rob O'Neill called for reassurance that the civil service was properly resourced for the challenges ahead.
"In the coming months, departments will be asked to prepare the Great Repeal Bill, deliver all of the government’s existing manifesto promises and come up with entirely new post-Brexit regimes for immigration, customs and agricultural policy, as today's report from the Institute for Government makes clear,” he said.
“If the prime minister really wants to make a success of Brexit, she cannot do it on the cheap. With Article 50 looming, it’s time for the government to match these major new commitments with the resources needed to do the job."