Politics Home | No 10 Has Created A Very Bad Relationship With Civil Service, Says Former Cabinet Secretary

The sacking of Olly Robbins has deepened the row between Downing Street and the civil service (Alamy)

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Lord Robin Butler, who led the civil service for a decade until 1998, said the row between No 10 and Olly Robbins over the security vetting of Lord Mandelson had made him “very sad” about the state of the relationship between politicians and civil servants. 

Last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer sacked Robbins as the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, arguing that Robbins should have told him that UK Security Vetting (UKSV) had raised issues with Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US.

Appearing before MPs earlier this week, Robbins confirmed that UKSV considered the case “borderline”, but stressed that Mandelson did not fail vetting. He went on to say that the Foreign Office faced “constant pressure” from No 10 to formalise Mandelson’s appointment quickly, and accused Downing Street of a “dismissive attitude” towards the vetting process.

The saga will continue next week, with both Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief of staff, and Philip Barton, Robbins’ predecessor at the Foreign Office, both due to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee about Mandelson’s appointment.

Speaking to this week’s episode of PoliticsHome podcast, The Rundown, Butler said the row “just made me very sad, actually”, adding: “Because what I remember was the civil service and the political advisors working harmoniously and with mutual respect, each doing their job but working together in the national interest, and that clearly hasn’t happened.”

He said the ongoing Mandelson row had exposed “very poor” communications between Starmer and Robbins, and described the relationship between Downing Street and Whitehall as “very ruptured”.

“The Prime Minister, and particularly No 10 and the political wing of No 10, have created a very bad relationship with the civil servants in No 10, with the Cabinet Office and with departments like the FCDO, and that, I would go so far as to say, makes the government dysfunctional.”

The former head of the civil service did strike a note of optimism, telling PoliticsHome that once the Mandelson affair subsides, the new Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo “has got an opportunity to make a fresh start”.

“It’s a question of leadership, and I think Antonia has got the qualities to give that leadership. 

“I’m really hopeful that she’s going to make a difference.”

He added: “I’m sure she’ll be working on improving the relationships between the Cabinet Secretary and those in No 10 on the political side and with the Prime Minister, I think she’s going to be very good at that — and that needs to be done.”

Butler appeared on The Rundown alongside Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA, Hannah Keenan, associate director at the Institute for Government think tank, and Suzannah Brecknell, co-editor of Civil Service World.

The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

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