DEBATE: Could Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation turn into a major headache for the government?
Could Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation turn into a major headache for the government?
Eliot Wilson, head of research at Right Angles and a former House of Commons official, says YES.
The resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam is not just a spat between a Whitehall mandarin and his minister. Its impact goes much further than that, and touches on the core of the relationship between Boris Johnson’s revitalised government and the civil service tasked with carrying out its plans.
Let’s be clear: this has never happened before. Permanent secretaries have resigned, but none has vowed to sue the government for unfair dismissal. A successful lawsuit would be devastating for relations between ministers and officials, and certainly bring down the home secretary, Priti Patel.
All of this, however, might be contained were it not for the context. Dominic Cummings, the PM’s special adviser, has all but declared war on Whitehall. He wants “weirdos and misfits” to shake up the civil service. He distrusts and disdains the current cadre of mandarins.
It may be that the Patel-Rutnam saga is his Pandora’s box. This is a Home Office problem, but it will spread. Battle lines have been drawn.
Lauren McEvatt, managing director of Morpeth Consulting and a former government adviser, says NO.
There are two governments: the government of ministers, of electoral accountability, of political responsibility — and another, its operational core, its permanent civil service.
Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation is being billed as a headache for the first form of government, an example of the old battle between ministers and their officials, of political weight being thrown around too liberally.
The bigger headache is longer term, however, and is a matter for the second form of government.
For too long, the upper echelons of the permanent civil service have seen ministers as an annoyance, a disruption to their status quo, a hindrance to the proper running of the ship. The Prime Minister and his team have made it quite clear that the age of this mentality is over —and the senior civil service are liable to be the most perturbed by this.
Rutnam’s resignation is not a long term problem for ministers, but it does herald the end of an era for the grey men of Whitehall.
Main image credit: Getty