The head of the top civil servants’ union has accused ministers including Theresa May of failing to defend the independence of its senior mandarins following the resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers as Britain’s ambassador in Brussels.

Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, which represents permanent secretaries, said the prime minister was “sitting back” as Rogers and the role of the civil service as a whole was criticised by former ministers such as Iain Duncan Smith.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, wrote to David Davis on Wednesday afternoon demanding he make a statement to the House of Commons explaining Rogers’ sudden resignation as the UK’s ambassador to the EU just weeks before the start of Brexit negotiations.



In his letter, Starmer said Roger’s resignation letter showed there were tensions over the candid advice offered by civil servants.

“There are obvious concerns – underlined by Sir Ivan’s insistence that UKRep staff continue to “challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and … never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power” – that this principle is being undermined by the government’s current approach to Brexit negotiations,” he wrote.

“The best way to clarify these points and wider concerns many people have about this matter would be to make a statement to the House of Commons when parliament returns on Monday.”



Duncan Smith on Wednesday has claimed that Rogers cannot be trusted by ministers because he allegedly leaked information to the press. The former welfare secretary said the career diplomat was among a group of civil servants who too unthinkingly accepted the word of other EU nations over how difficult Brexit would prove.

Reports on Wednesday have also quoted Downing Street sources as saying that May is looking for a pro-Brexit replacement for Rogers.

Penman, whose union’s 18,000 members will be at the forefront of implementing and negotiating Brexit, said it would be fundamentally at odds with the principle of an independent civil service.

“It doesn’t surprise me that some politicians are calling for pro-Brexit civil servants to be appointed. What surprises me is the deafening silence from ministers who should be taking to the airwaves to defend the integrity and capability of the impartial civil service,” he said.

“The prime minister herself has publicly criticised civil servants, trivialised those who suggest [the civil service is] being under-resourced and now sits back as key officials are pilloried by a succession of former ministers.

“If the civil service is to deliver a successful Brexit negotiation the recipe for that success is unlikely to be [to] starve it of resources, lack clarity of objective and surround yourself with yes men and women who won’t speak truth unto power.”

Penman also took exception to claims that Rogers had leaked information to the press in December when it emerged that the diplomat had written that it could take 10 years to negotiate an EU trade deal.



Penman said: “Undermining civil servants and saying they are responsible for leaks when every journalist knows that leaks are more likely to come from politicians and special advisers only further toxifies the role the civil service will have to play in these negotiations.

“This undermines the civil service’s ability to deliver a successful Brexit. Duncan Smith’s comments are the latest example of this.”

Rogers was also defended by Peter Ricketts, who was the head civil servant at the Foreign Office, and national security adviser under David Cameron.

“There’s absolutely no evidence for that, and I’m afraid it’s a bit of a smear against Ivan Rogers,” Lord Ricketts said of the leak accusation. The information was, he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One, more likely to have been “leaked from the centre with a political motive”.

Ricketts argued strongly against the idea of Rogers’ successor needing to be a Brexit supporter: “A civil servant has got to be there to give ministers fearless, unvarnished advice, the reality as they see it.

“This idea that you’ve got to have somebody who is pro-Brexit politicises the civil service in a way that we’ve never done in this country.”

The comments reflect growing anguish among senior civil servants at the way the government is allowing “outriders” such as Duncan Smith to make allegations at civil servants who are unable to answer back.

In an email explaining the reasons for his abrupt departure to his staff, Rogers said he was leaving to give time for his successor to take charge of the lengthy negotiations process, which starts in March. But he made it clear that he had been frustrated by politicians who disliked his warnings about the potential pitfalls in the Brexit process.

He also revealed that the basic structure of the UK Brexit negotiating team had not yet been resolved, let alone a negotiating strategy.

Duncan Smith told Radio 4’s Today programme that what Rogers might see as “truth” was just an opinion. “[Rogers] was clearly frustrated about what he thinks may be a difference of opinion between his own view about what he thinks is achievable and what ministers think is achievable ...

“In the email I thought there was a slightly portentous statement where he said ‘don’t be afraid to speak truth unto power’. The word ‘truth’ is quite an interesting word. I would say actually the word should have been ‘opinion’ because I’ve had many times in the department where I have had civil servants sit in front of me telling me adamantly that things can or cannot be done and you look at that and you argue back and debate about it and think about it and then you come back and say there are different ways to do things.”