Scandals pile up for top civil servant Simon Case

The spotlight is on Britain’s youngest-ever Whitehall chief, says Sean O’Grady

Cabinet secretary Simon Case faces some tough decisions (PA)

Simon Case, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service since 2020, is a man in the news. Unusually for a top civil servant, he is at the centre of two scandals simultaneously: Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs, and the story of Boris Johnson’s £800,000 private and undeclared “credit facility”. The behaviour of our top civil servant will be under intense scrutiny in the coming weeks.

What’s at stake?

Arguably, the careers of Rishi Sunak and Mr Johnson – and of Mr Case himself – as well as the reputation of the civil service. It has earned its esteem as impartial, expert, honest, reliable, a bulwark against illegality and corruption and, above all, independent.

What’s the worst-case scenario?

For Mr Case, 44, it would be that he gets so badly criticised in the various inquiries now underway he has to quit or, after a decent interval, is removed.

In the tax affair, the worst that could happen is for it to be discovered beyond doubt that Mr Case knew of Mr Zahawi’s HMRC investigation and didn’t tell the prime minister of the day, be it Mr Johnson, Liz Truss or Mr Sunak. It would irreparably alter his working relationship with Mr Sunak, essential to the smooth running of government.

In the example of Mr Johnson’s overdraft, Mr Case will have to account for why he (presumably) approved the arrangement and whether he raised any concerns. If Mr Case doesn’t present a convincing argument, he will have eroded the independence of the institution he heads. It would look as if he was appointed by Mr Johnson in order to allow the prime minister’s eccentric approach to governance rather than to enforce constitutional conventions.

What is a permanent secretary supposed to do?

Within very large bounds, whatever the prime minister of the day wants them to do. Even the most traditional of figures saw it as their role to get the things the prime minister wanted done. That means identifying and anticipating practical problems with policy and advising on how to deal with political opposition and institutional resistance. It requires overt skills of persuasion and reason and darker arts of nuance and manipulation through the Whitehall machine. The one thing the cabinet secretary (or Downing Street permanent secretary as the job is known post-Partygate) is required to do unequivocally is to enforce civil service code and the ministerial code. Advisers advise, ministers decide is as true of the cabinet secretary as it is of any minister.

Why was Case different?

Most prime ministers inherit cabinet secretaries from their predecessors, including those of a different party, and can work well with them. Sometimes, as with ministers and their own departmental permanent secretaries, the chemistry isn’t quite right, or worse. In Mr Johnson’s case, heavily influenced by his political adviser Dominic Cummings, the civil service was deemed to be unfit for the modern world, requiring radical reform including bringing the Treasury under direct No 10 control, and establishing a Nasa-style control space in Downing Street. Mark Sedwill, who had been appointed only two years earlier by Theresa May, was forced out and Mr Case appointed in his place, the youngest person ever to hold the post. Mr Case was plainly not in the usual apostolic tradition of succession, nor was he meant to be. He seems to have taken the view that Mr Johnson’s was an unusually forceful style of government, and the civil service had to adapt to it, rather than the other way around.

Is Case the first cabinet secretary to ‘become the story’?

He has certainly been tangled up in some very high-profile incidents in an unprecedented way. One way or another he has been involved in, or had to deal with, scandals including: Wallpapergate, Partygate, Mr Cummings’s breach of lockdown rules and subsequent departure, allegations against Priti Patel and Dominic Raab over bullying of senior civil servants, and Kwasi Kwarteng’s summary dismissal of Treasury permanent secretary Tom Scholar.

The only precedent was a strange time when cabinet secretary Robert Armstrong was dispatched to Australia by Margaret Thatcher in 1986 to give evidence in the Spycatcher case. The British government was trying to suppress a memoir by Peter Wright, an MI5 agent who’d retired to Australia and claimed in his book there had been an establishment plot to bring down the Labour government of Harold Wilson. Mr Armstrong’s cautious, ambiguous and circumlocutory answers were likened to scenes from early-1980s satire, Yes, Minister. He gave the magnificent phrase “economical with the truth” to the English language. Mr Case’s appearance before a select committee in June last year was not as widely-ridiculed but it was notable for its skilful reticence. His next encounter with MPs may be more robust.

What is an ideal cabinet secretary like?

Norman Brook (1947-62). who served Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan through some turbulent times, seems to have been universally admired. One of his political contemporaries said Brook was “probably the most accomplished permanent civil servant in my years”.