Category Archives: Civil service

‘Time for the truth’: MPs call on Boris Johnson to publish ‘partygate’ report

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Cabinet Office officials wrangle over final version of Sue Gray’s findings on alleged Covid rule-breaking parties

Boris Johnson has been told it is “time for the truth to be released” as he faced more calls to publish a long-awaited report into “partygate” in full and not “suppress crucial details”.

Officials in the Cabinet Office are still wrangling over the final version of Sue Gray’s findings on a string of alleged Covid rule-breaking parties in Downing Street and other parts of government.

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No 10 apologises to Queen over parties on eve of Prince Philip funeral

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Boris Johnson’s spokesperson says ‘it’s deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning’

Downing Street was forced to issue an unprecedented public apology to the Queen on Friday over parties held in No 10 on the eve of her husband’s funeral, amid mounting fury from grassroots Tories.

Conservative MPs will hold crisis talks over the weekend about how to respond to allegations of a party culture in Westminster while the rest of the country was in lockdown.

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Whistleblower condemns Foreign Office over Kabul evacuation

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Ex-diplomat claims string of failings within department led to ‘people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban’

Tens of thousands of Afghans were unable to access UK help following the fall of Kabul because of turmoil and confusion in the Foreign Office, according a devastating account by a whistleblower.

A former diplomat has claimed bureaucratic chaos, ministerial intervention, lack of planning and a short-hours culture in the department led to “people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban”.

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Dominic Cummings says Covid chaos at No 10 was like ‘out-of-control movie’

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Former aide paints picture of media-obsessed PM and chaotic pandemic response in evidence to MPs

Dominic Cummings has laid bare the “surreal” chaos in Downing Street in March last year as the government grappled with the Covid pandemic, portraying the prime minister as obsessed with the media and making constant U-turns, “like a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”.

During an extraordinary evidence session to MPs at Westminster on Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s former chief aide targeted the prime minister for personal criticism, accusing him of being “unfit for the job”.

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UK civil servants given just days to prepare £2.9bn aid cuts in 2020

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Cuts were agreed on the basis of a forecast shown five days later to be too pessimistic, report finds

UK civil servants were given five to seven working days to prepare 30% cuts in the overseas aid budget last summer, including a £730m cut to bilateral aid that it later emerged was unnecessary.

The cuts were agreed in July 2020 on the basis of a single forecast reduction in the size of the UK economy, which was shown to be too pessimistic five days after the cuts package was signed off.

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‘No 10 was a plague pit’: how Covid brought Westminster to its knees

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Insiders tell of a Whitehall in panic mode and reveal virus spread far more widely than was acknowledged

Westminster is an infectious place. A tiny germ of controversy or rebellion can spread across parliament, through Whitehall and into the prime minister’s office within hours. The windowless offices are cramped, MPs sit elbow to elbow in a Commons chamber that can only squeeze just over 400 MPs into its seats, two-thirds of the number in parliament.

It is also a place of macho presenteeism, where the Greggs in Westminster tube station often serves as a nightly dinner spot for some of the most senior office-holders in the land.

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UK facing risk of ‘systemic economic crisis’, official paper says

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Exclusive: Cabinet Office briefing seen by Guardian warns that Brexit, Covid, flu, flooding and unrest could lead to chaos

The government has privately admitted the UK faces an increased likelihood of “systemic economic crisis” as it completes its exit from the European Union in the middle of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

A confidential Cabinet Office briefing seen by the Guardian also warns of a “notable risk” that in coming months the country could face a perfect storm of simultaneous disasters, including the prospect of a bad flu season on top of the medical strains caused by Covid.

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Racism endemic at DfID, staff claim

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Report says racism is endemic in UK aid department’s HQ and network of offices abroad

Many black, Asian and minority ethnic men working in the Department for International Development claim to have experienced prejudice at work, including racist jokes and doubts about their legality as UK citizens.

The government’s aid department has also been severely criticised for signing off an anti-sexual harassment campaign that portrayed BAME men following or restraining white women, in a report seen by the Guardian.

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Boris Johnson confirms plans for ‘government hub’ in York

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PM says city should be in frame if Commons or Lords have to move during restoration work

Boris Johnson has confirmed that Downing Street is thinking of setting up a “government hub” in York, telling officials drawing up restoration plans for the Palace of Westminster that they should consider the city if the Commons or Lords have to be moved.

Restoration of the parliamentary estate, which is crumbling in many places and viewed as a significant fire risk, could cost an estimated £6bn, and the plans are still being debated.

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Who might the government seek to blame for the UK’s Covid-19 failings?

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Ministers have been accused of trying to shift the narrative over response to pandemic

While ministers insist that it is too early to fully consider what lessons might be learned from the coronavirus outbreak, the UK’s death toll – the highest in Europe – is expected to prompt an inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

In recent weeks, the government has been accused of seeking to pre-emptively shift the narrative on responsibility for the country’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak and blame others for what went wrong.

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May and Johnson hung civil servants out to dry, report finds

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Inquiry into Whitehall’s Brexit role says prime ministers failed to protect officials

Theresa May and Boris Johnson let the former chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins and other civil servants hang out to dry after they became “targets for political attacks”, an investigation into Whitehall’s role in the Brexit drama of the past four years has found.

The independent thinktank the Institute for Government (IfG) spent months talking in confidence to Whitehall sources including officials, ministers and special advisers, to shine a light on the behind-the-scenes experience of some of those involved in one of the most controversial chapters in British political history.

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Failure to protect: who is to blame for Britain’s coronavirus crisis?

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A number of prominent people are being criticised for their shortcomings over Covid-19

The UK’s Covid-19 crisis has reached the blame phase, with Boris Johnson, ministers, civil servants and scientists coming under criticism that they underestimated the threat, were slow to act and are bungling the country’s response amid a wave of deaths.

So who is in the line of fire – and why?

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Priti Patel bullying row: ex-Home Office chief launches tribunal claim

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Sir Philip Rutnam takes action under whistleblowing laws, claiming constructive dismissal

Priti Patel is facing legal action under whistleblowing laws after her former permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam lodged an employment tribunal claim on Monday saying he was forced from his job for exposing her bullying behaviour.

Rutnam claims he was constructively dismissed from his role as Home Office permanent secretary after informing the Cabinet Office that Patel had belittled officials in meetings and made unreasonable demands on staff.

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Survey of thousands of Home Office staff revives bullying row

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Poll highlights issues such as excessive control shortly after furore surrounding Priti Patel

Thousands of Home Office employees claim they have been discriminated against, bullied or harassed at work, according to the results of a staff survey.

The Home Office people survey, which was conducted in autumn 2019 and was completed by 21,095 employees, is part of a civil service-wide assessment.

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Boris Johnson says he will ‘stick by’ Priti Patel under fire from Labour

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PM backs home secretary amid bullying claims, saying she is doing an ‘outstanding job’

Boris Johnson has given the government’s strongest backing yet for Priti Patel in the wake of fresh bullying allegations, insisting the home secretary was doing an “outstanding job”, as Jeremy Corbyn demanded an independent inquiry into whether she had broken the ministerial code.

Patel was alongside Johnson on the frontbench during prime minister’s questions as he told the Commons she was keeping the country safe by increasing the number of police officers on the streets and bringing in a system to “tackle our migration crisis”.

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Top civil servant begins legal case against Priti Patel and Home Office

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Home secretary may have to give evidence under oath if case comes to tribunal

Sir Philip Rutnam, the senior civil servant who resigned on Saturday claiming he was bullied and forced from office, has begun legal action against the government over his treatment by Priti Patel, his union has told the Guardian.

Legal documents name the home secretary, the Home Office and the Cabinet Office as respondents, the FDA said. It would mean that Patel will be expected to give evidence under oath if the case comes to tribunal.

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Cabinet Office to investigate Priti Patel bullying claims

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Gove tells MPs government will not set up fully independent inquiry into allegations Patel breached ministerial code

The Cabinet Office is to launch an inquiry into explosive claims that Priti Patel lied and bullied officials in several government departments, Michael Gove has told MPs.

The de facto deputy prime minister said the government would not set up a fully independent inquiry after Sir Philip Rutnam quit as permanent secretary of the Home Office.

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Priti Patel’s future in doubt after senior Home Office civil servant resigns

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Sir Philip Rutnam will sue for unfair dismissal, saying the home secretary began a ‘vicious’ campaign against him

Priti Patel’s future as the home secretary is being called into question this weekend after the most senior civil servant in her department resigned in a row over her alleged bullying of staff – and then announced he would sue the government for constructive dismissal.

In a move described as “unprecedented” and “extraordinary” by two former heads of the home civil service, Sir Philip Rutnam accused Patel of orchestrating a “vicious” campaign against him and of “shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands – behaviour that created fear and that needed some bravery to call out.”

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‘No more deal or no deal’: Brexit language diktat for Foreign Office staff

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Downing Street issues series of dos and don’ts on language department staff must use

Foreign Office staff have been banned from using certain words and phrases in discussing Brexit – including “implementation period”, “no deal”, “special partnership” and even Brexit itself unless in certain narrow circumstances.

The directive underlines the degree to which Downing Street is determined that everyone in the department follows its ideological lead in using language that frames Britain’s departure from the European Union as a clean break.

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Johnson to cabinet: shape up or I’ll sack you within weeks

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Top ministers are warned to stay off TV with reshuffle alert part of plan by Dominic Cummings

Boris Johnson is to tell cabinet ministers that they must focus all their energy on developing policies for post-Brexit Britain – or face the sack in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle within weeks.

Related: Liberal, nuanced, cautious: is this the real Boris Johnson?

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