Mark Sedwill: Cabinet secretary and top civil servant to step down in September

Boris Johnson’s inner circle has been accused of undermining the prime minister’s top civil servant, after cabinet secretary and national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill announced he will stand down in September.

Sedwill will be replaced as national security adviser by David Frost, currently serving as Mr Johnson’s chief negotiator in talks on the post-Brexit trade and security relationship with the EU.

Sir Mark’s departure comes amid plans for a wide-ranging shake-up of Whitehall, driven by the ambitions of Mr Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings to streamline the civil service machine.

It is certain to be seen as a bid by Johnson and Cummings to get their own people into key positions at the heart of the Downing Street operation.

Liberal Democrat acting leader Ed Davey said the prime minister appeared to be indulging his adviser’s wish to “politicise” the civil service.

And Labour said it was “concerning” that the preoccupation of the prime minister and his senior aide was “reshuffling Whitehall” at a time when jobs are under threat as the UK comes out of lockdown.

Meanwhile, the head of the FDA union for top civil servants said the government would “emerge weaker” from the loss of “one of the outstanding public servants of his generation”, and suggested the manner of his departure might make potential successors think twice about applying for the job.

“No10 – or those around it – has sought to undermine Sir Mark and the leadership of the civil service with a series of anonymous briefings against him over many months,” said union general secretary Dave Penman. “Not only is it a self-defeating and corrosive tactic, it’s also a cowardly one, safe in the knowledge that those who are briefed against are unable to publicly respond.

“How would any potential candidate for cabinet secretary judge their prospective employers, given how the current cadre of leaders has been treated by them?

“No CEO or Chair of a private company would act in this way and expect their organisation to thrive. A government that so publicly covets the best of the private sector on delivery could do with learning exactly what good leadership looks like: it certainly isn’t this.”

Former cabinet secretary Gus O’Donnell, who held the post under three PMs from 2005-11, said Sedwill’s departure was “very sad”. Referring to his successor’s relations with the Johnson team, Lord O’Donnell told the BBC: “They are probably quite a difficult team to work. I wonder about how keen people will be to come next. It would be hard at the best of times, and these are not the best of times.”

Ever since Mr Johnson’s arrival in No 10 in July last year, there has been speculation that Sedwill might be removed, and reports suggest he has clashed with Mr Cummings during the coronavirus crisis.

Highly unusually, Mr Frost – who will continue as Brexit negotiator as talks conclude – is a political appointment, while all previous national security advisers have been civil servants. Sedwill was the first national security adviser to simultaneously hold the post of cabinet secretary.

There was no sign of tension between Sedwill and the PM in the letters exchanged between the pair, with the civil servant voicing his appreciation for the prime minister’s “confidence and friendship” and Johnson thanking him for his “calm and shrewd advice”.

The prime minister has nominated Sir Mark for a life peerage and appointed him to lead a new G7 panel on global economic security as the UK prepares to assume the presidency of the international body.

Sedwill, 55, has spent 30 years in the civil service, was appointed national security adviser by Theresa May in 2017, having previously worked with her as permanent secretary in the Home Office. He was made cabinet secretary and head of the civil service on the early death from cancer of predecessor Sir Jeremy Heywood in 2018.

A competition will be launched shortly to appoint a new cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, with applications invited from existing and former permanent secretaries of Whitehall departments.

Mr Frost is expected to take up his role as national security adviser around the end of August and there will be a short transition period. Sedwill will remain as cabinet secretary to the end of September.

Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Helen Hayes said: “We pay tribute to the work Mark Sedwill has done. He has been a dedicated public servant and has run the civil service in difficult times.

“On the day it was revealed millions of jobs across the country could be under threat in the coming months, it is very concerning that Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings are preoccupied with reshuffling Whitehall.”

Sir Ed Davey said: “Boris Johnson is clearly ready to grant Cummings his every wish when it comes to politicising the civil service and sweeping out those who may try to hold his government to account.

“Sedwill’s departure threatens to introduce yet more instability into the civil service at a time when it is already stretched to breaking point by the Covid-19 crisis, the largest economic downturn in living memory and the imminent threat of a no-deal Brexit.

“The prime minister must be absolutely clear about any further plans for civil service reform, and must guarantee full parliamentary scrutiny of these. Our world-class civil service fulfils a vital role – we cannot afford to see it hollowed out.”

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk