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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rowena Mason, Jessica Elgot and Aubrey Allegretti

Civil service head warns PM against forcing Whitehall workers back to office

Simon Case
Simon Case (pictured) told the prime minister that Jacob Rees-Mogg’s strategy of leaving notes on empty desks was unwise. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

The UK’s top civil servant has privately warned Boris Johnson against forcing government workers back to the office amid growing anger in Whitehall over “scare tactics”, the Guardian has learned.

Alongside Simon Case, at least four permanent secretaries – the most senior civil servants in their department – are also understood to have raised alarm over government rhetoric designed to reverse the shift to working-from-home arrangements during the Covid pandemic.

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