Former heads of the civil service have sharply criticised Liz Truss for sacking her top Treasury official immediately after becoming prime minister.
Lord O’Donnell said that the prime minister’s removal of Sir Tom Scholar as permanent secretary was “no way to earn the respect of the Treasury and the civil service”.
And Lord Butler – who served under Margaret Thatcher, Sir John Major and Sir Tony Blair – said Ms Truss had behaved “improperly” and warned the actions of the new administration could “corrupt” the system.
The Treasury permanent secretary’s removal, announced on Thursday, has already been condemned by his predecessor Lord Macpherson, who described Sir Tom as “the best civil servant of his generation”.
Ms Truss repeatedly railed against “Treasury orthodoxy” during her successful campaign for the Conservative leadership, arguing that excessive caution over tax cuts and borrowing was holding back the UK’s economic growth.
She is thought to be seeking a new head for the Treasury who will back her plan for unfunded tax cuts in the face of warnings that they will lead to higher inflation and interest rates
It is understood that Sir Tom was informed he was losing his job of six years on Tuesday, after Ms Truss was installed as PM and appointed Kwasi Kwarteng as her chancellor.
Lord O’Donnell, who served under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron as cabinet secretary from 2005-11, said he understood that the PM was also planning to replace her national security adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove.
He told Times Radio that in her position as “a great public servant”, the prime minister “needs to respect the civil service and public servants everywhere and treat them with respect. “And to be honest, starting with the sacking of Tom Scholar hasn’t been as respectful as one would like.”
Asked if he had “concerns” about the signal sent by Scholar’s dismissal, Lord O’Donnell replied: “I most certainly do, yes.
“If you’re going to succeed, as a prime minister, you have to have the civil service with you. They are keen to serve the democratically elected politicians of the country. But … the respect should go both ways.
“She needs to understand that sacking someone straight [away] with no notice for no apparent reason, someone held in high regard by chancellors of all political parties, is no way to earn the respect of the Treasury and the civil service, I’m afraid.
“And the same is true – it seems to be – [with] Stephen Lovegrove, who was national security adviser [and] who will be stepping down.”
Lord Butler strongly condemned the sacking of Sir Tom at the Treasury on the first day of the new administration as “very unusual and very regrettable”.
“If there was ever a time we needed experience and continuity, which is what the Civil Service provides, it is now,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend. “We have a new sovereign, we have a new prime minister and we really need the cement that can hold this system together.”
“I think they are behaving improperly towards the civil service. It will weaken them but it will also corrupt our system because one of those great advantages of having an independent, loyal civil service will be compromised.”
Thirty years a civil servant, Sir Tom, 53, worked closely with both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron before taking the top Treasury job in 2016.
He served as Mr Brown’s principal private secretary before moving to Washington as the UK representative at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He then worked as chief of staff for the last Labour PM and returned to a senior post at the Treasury at the height of the banking crisis. He was senior adviser on Europe to Mr Cameron.
Lord Macpherson, who held the permanent secretary post for 11 years under three chancellors before handing on to Sir Tom, described him as “the best civil servant of his generation”.
He added: “Sacking him makes no sense. His experience would have been invaluable in the coming months as government policy places massive upward pressure on the cost of funding. As Gordon Brown used to say: ‘They’re not thinking’.”
The news was confirmed on Thursday in a statement from the Treasury: “The chancellor has asked the cabinet secretary to begin the recruitment process for a new permanent secretary to the Treasury to succeed Tom Scholar.”
