A Brexit Minister has been accused of “declaring war on the civil service" after he repeated claims that Whitehall officials could be plotting to influence UK Government policy to keep Britain in the EU customs union.
For a second time this week, Steve Baker enraged the civil servants’ trade union after he told MPs that he had heard "extraordinary allegations" of civil servants conspiring against official Government policy and promoting the idea of Britain remaining in the customs union.
On Tuesday, the leading Brexiteer said the leak of officials’ draft Brexit analysis - which suggested staying in the single market would result in the least worst impact on growth following withdrawal – had been a deliberate attempt to undermine the Government’s approach.
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He enraged civil servants by suggesting that their economic analyses were “always wrong”.
His comments in the Commons about a possible pro-Remain civil service conspiracy led the civil servants’ union, the FDA, to fire off another broadside.
Dave Penman, its General Secretary, condemned Mr Baker for refusing to challenge a “half-baked conspiracy theory about the civil service,” adding: “These cowardly actions are beneath the office he holds and Mr Baker risks seriously undermining the Government he is a part of."
In the Commons, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, winced when his colleague at the Department for Exiting the EU, made his comments in response to an intervention by fellow Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The Somerset MP asked Mr Baker to confirm if he had heard from Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, that "officials in the Treasury have deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union were bad and that officials intended to use this to influence policy".
Mr Rees-Mogg added: "If this is correct, does he share my view that it goes against the spirit of the Northcote Rebellion reforms that underpin our independent civil service?"
Mr Baker replied: "I am sorry to say his account is essentially correct. At the time I considered it implausible because my direct experience is that civil servants are extraordinarily careful to uphold the impartiality of the civil service.”
He noted: “It would be quite extraordinary if it turned out that such a thing had happened."
When the Brexit Minister was challenged over his remarks by Opposition MPs, he replied: "I said it was correct the allegation was put to me; I did not in any way seek to confirm the truth of it.”
But Mr Grant issued a statement, denying Mr Rees-Mogg’s claim.
Referring to a Prospect Magazine lunch at the Tory Party conference last October, he insisted: “I did not say or imply that the Treasury had deliberately developed a model to show that all non-customs union options were bad with the intention to influence policy.”
Tory backbencher Antoinette Sandbach, who was also at the lunch, backed up Mr Grant, tweeting: "At NO point did I hear any suggestion of civil servants deliberately manipulating data modelling."
But Downing Street came to the defence of the minister, saying a “senior No 10 aide” had spoken to him about his comments and had “no reason to doubt his account”.
The pro-EU Best for Britain campaign claimed Mr Baker had “declared war on the civil service,” by suggesting “mandarins may be conspiring to force a soft Brexit on the UK”.
Tom Brake for the Liberal Democrats said: “Ministers should never be in the business of fanning the flames of conspiracy theories but this is exactly what Baker has done. Either he knows officials deliberately skewed their research or he doesn't. His words are not worthy of a Government minister.”
He added: “This is not a case of the civil service conspiring against Brexit but of the facts conspiring against the agenda of Brexiteers like Mr Baker."
Labour’s Chris Leslie, noting how Prospect had released the audio of the lunch and that nothing in it supported Mr Baker’s claim, insisted the minister should “immediately cease his groundless attacks on the integrity of the civil service and apologise to all those he has offended”.