Outcry after former Whitehall mandarin Lord McDonald admits he voted Remain as MPs call for the reform of the Civil Service
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A former Whitehall mandarin sparked calls for the reform of the Civil Service yesterday after he appeared to admit breaking impartiality rules over Brexit.
In an extraordinary revelation, former Foreign Office chief Simon McDonald said he had told staff he voted Remain in the wake of the 2016 referendum to show solidarity with his shell-shocked officials.
Lord McDonald said the move was necessary to ‘maintain credibility’ in a department which was left ‘in mourning’ after Britain voted to leave the EU.
But his decision appeared to be in breach of the Civil Service code and fuelled concerns that senior officials tried to frustrate Brexit.
Former Cabinet minister Liam Fox described Sir Simon’s comments as ‘completely inappropriate’.
Simon McDonald nspeaks during joint press conference with the Undersecretary of Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador in 2017
Dr Fox, who served as international trade secretary during the Brexit negotiations, said: ‘It is yet another example of the loss of the Civil Service impartiality we have a right to expect.
READ MORE: Lord McDonald reveals the contempt in which the political class hold the people who pay their wages
‘This sort of attitude was a big issue during the negotiations. We had politicians trying to thwart Brexit in Parliament, including the Speaker John Bercow. And we clearly had a nod and a wink to the Civil Service from senior figures like Lord McDonald that it was fine to put the brakes on.
‘It just reinforces the need for Civil Service reform. We need to move to a system where the secretary of state can sack the permanent secretary because we need to know that the top of the civil service is committed to implementing what the public have voted for.’
Fellow Tory Peter Bone said: ‘These comments show there was a fundamental problem with people at the heart of government refusing to accept the verdict of the British people.
‘You could see the results at the time – it explains why we had these farcical delays and obstacles to leaving the EU.’
Lord McDonald admitted that the Foreign Office’s board was ‘not entirely comfortable’ with his decision to reveal to staff and ministers how he had voted.
Told about his comments, former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara told the BBC: ‘Wow, that is genuinely surprising… I don’t know why that would be a good or helpful thing.’
The former Foreign Office chief giving evidence by videolink to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in 2020
A fellow mandarin described Sir Simon as a ‘pompous a**e’.
Lord McDonald’s comments are made in a documentary by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on the chaos that engulfed Westminster following the Brexit vote.
He said the Foreign Office was ‘in mourning’ after the Brexit vote.
‘People were in tears. People were in shock,’ he said. ‘On this occasion, this solitary occasion, I decided to tell my colleagues and therefore let ministers know that I voted to remain in the EU.’ He added: ‘I was trying to maintain credibility and trying to convey a message to a group of people, most of whom I felt had voted to remain in the EU, that their personal feelings were beside the professional point.’
The code for civil servants requires that they act with impartiality by never allowing ‘personal political views to determine any advice you give or your actions’.
They are barred from expressing personal views ‘on matters of national political controversy’. But Tory MP Alicia Kearns, who previously served as an official at the Foreign Office, said anti-Brexit views were common in the department at the time. Ms Kearns said one senior civil servant told a meeting of officials: ‘We know the British public got it wrong.’
One former Foreign Office official also claimed that Lord McDonald had been ‘deliberately obstructive’ when ministers were trying to negotiate Britain’s departure from the EU.
Career diplomat who posted ‘It was a good day’ when Boris quit
Lord McDonald’s candid admissions will have shocked few in Downing Street.
For years the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office mandarin was suspected of privately waging guerilla warfare against No10’s Brexit policies in the corridors of Whitehall.
Under Boris Johnson’s tenure, the career diplomat was reportedly on a ‘No10 s*** list’ for his perceived opposition to leaving the EU. Mr Johnson and his ministers were convinced he was part of the civil service ‘blob’ trying to frustrate the will of the public.
There was certainly no love lost between the Foreign Office’s top official and Mr Johnson, who was foreign secretary before becoming Prime Minister.
After a 40-year career in the civil service, Lord McDonald became famous overnight for one spectacular act: helping to trigger Mr Johnson’s downfall.
He made an explosive intervention in the Chris Pincher controversy in July last year that triggered a crisis when he publicly accusing No10 of lying.
After deputy chief whip Mr Pincher was accused of sexual groping, No10 claimed the PM had been unaware of a previous complaint in 2019 about Mr Pincher before appointing him.
‘For years the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office mandarin was suspected of privately waging guerilla warfare against No10’s Brexit policies’
After reports Mr Johnson had nicknamed him ‘Pincher by name, pincher by nature’, Lord McDonald wrote a bombshell open letter contradicting Downing Street’s claims.
It gave ammunition to critics as Mr Johnson attempted to deal with the fresh allegations against Mr Pincher.
When a few weeks later Mr Johnson resigned, the former mandarin was accused of gloating after posting online a photo of Parliament at sunset captioned: ‘It was a good day.’
Before resigning, Lord McDonald was permanent under- secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs – Britain’s most senior diplomat – from 2010 to 2015.
He held that post when Mr Johnson was foreign secretary and insiders said the two repeatedly clashed. Mr Johnson thought the ‘Remainiac’ mandarin was trying to ‘undermine him by leaking stories about him being lazy’.
Lord McDonald, 62, left his role in 2020 and was made a peer, sitting as a crossbencher as Lord McDonald of Salford, after the city where he was born in 1961 where he attended grammar school before going to Cambridge University.
Last year he took up the post of Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He is married to Olivia, whose father Baron Wright of Richmond was head of the Foreign Office from 1986 to 1991. The couple have two sons and two daughters.
In 2018, he rejected reports the Foreign Office was left demoralised by Brexit, comments that will be scrutinised in light of his latest remarks.
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