Major criticises PMs for civil service treatment

Former prime minister Sir John Major has criticised some of his recent Conservative successors for their attitude to the civil service.

He suggested the turnover of Conservative MPs Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak since 2019 was "not conducive to good government".

Sir John was speaking alongside former Labour PM Gordon Brown at an Institute for Government (IfG) event.

The thinktank has launched a report on fixing the centre of government.

Responding to issues posed by Brexit and the Covid pandemic, the IfG has investigated "core weaknesses" in the relationships between Downing Street, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.

Sir John, who was prime minister between 1990 and 1997, said there was a clear need for change to create "a far more effective and trusted system".

Decision-making like this "does not help the perception" of politics, he said, adding: "Nor does a Supreme Court ruling that the government has broken the law.

"Nor is it a good optic when ministers indulge in public arguments, openly blame or, in one or two occasions, insult their civil servants, or when they favour the advice of often inexperienced political advisers over that of civil servants with years of specialist experience and knowledge.

"Or when they sack senior civil servants who offer candid advice, which simply did not suit the government's thinking."

The think tank proposed a shake-up of how the civil service operates around the prime minister in particular, and called for more strategic thinking from a smaller cabinet, with four ministers instead of the current 22 at the top decision-making table.

Sir John agreed with decision-making being led by cabinet, saying the UK is not a presidency and arguing "power is safest when it is spread around".

However, although he agreed the current cabinet is "too large and cumbersome", he suggested an inner cabinet of four was equally too small and exclusionary.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown said both he and Sir John were "shocked" by the suggestion of an executive cabinet, which senior Labour figures have been discussing, adding they would be "surprised if that could ever work".

King Herod and the Gang of Four in Communist China had been historic examples of a cabinet that size, he said, with "inauspicious" results.

Mr Brown, a former Chancellor as well as PM between 2007-10 focused on Treasury reform, warning "we are in a make-or-break decade for our economy".

Calling for a turnaround strategy, he urged the Treasury not to retreat into its "comfort zone... simply being a finance department and simply managing debt and deficit reduction".

If the Treasury played an active role as an economic department and shared more power with the prime minister, he said, "we have a chance to break out of some of the difficulties that we've had in the past".

Mr Brown suggested the solution was a National Economic Council, jointly chaired by the prime minister and the chancellor with their civil servants, which "forces an interdepartmental collegiality about dealing with the problems that we face".