Boris Johnson’s government is under fire after selecting leading Brexiteer Gisela Stuart to lead a commission responsible for making sure the civil service is politically impartial.
Baroness Stuart – the Vote Leave chair who campaigned with Mr Johnson during the Brexit referendum – was revealed as the government’s preferred choice for the civil service commissioner job on Thursday.
The former Labour MP and crossbench peer also urged Labour voters to switch allegiances to the Tories in the 2019 general election to help “get Brexit done”.
Baroness Stuart said it was “a great honour” to be named in the top Whitehall role and said she vowed to “maintain the excellence and impartiality of our civil service.”
But Labour condemned the choice saying it would be “deeply inappropriate” for someone who lead a divisive national political campaign to oversee political impartiality in Whitehall.
“Baroness Stuart has had an admirable career, but she is a former elected politician and chaired a national political campaign,” said the shadow Cabinet Office minister Fleur Anderson MP.
She said: “There are huge questions marks over whether she can uphold the independence and integrity of this role and my Labour colleagues believe this is a deeply inappropriate appointment.”
Referring to the investigation into Downing Street Christmas parties, Ms Anderson added: “On a day when junior civil servants are being hung out to dry, the neutrality of this position is more important than ever.”
The government argued Baroness Stuart has contributed to public life in “non-partisan roles”, such as at the Royal Mint and the Cabinet Office.
A statement on her selection also noted that she now sits as a crossbencher in the Lords, operating “independently, outside of a party-political framework”.
But Alex Thomas, who leads the Institute for Government think tank’s work on the civil service, raised concerns over the appointment of a politician to the role – saying it had not been done since 1909.
“Asking a politician to do it is problematic. The very essence of the job is to safeguard the impartiality of the civil service,” he said. “It makes it difficult to discharge that function credibly.”
Mr Thomas said the view was nothing to do with Baroness Stuart having served as the chair of Vote Leave, arguing that “there’s nothing wrong with that” – but that appointing any politician could raise concerns.
Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay said: “Baroness Stuart has all the attributes, experience and independence of judgment needed to lead the Civil Service commission highly effectively.”
She is expected to appear before the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee before the government considers the MPs’ views and decides whether to approve her appointment.
