Some senior civil servants who are disillusioned over preparations for Brexit are considering stepping down from their positions amid growing tensions with Downing Street.

In the wake of the resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers as Britain’s ambassador in Brussels, sources said some of Whitehall’s top officials are “gravely concerned” by his treatment as well as mounting problems over preparations to leave the EU.

It comes after former Conservative ministers questioned the impartiality of Rogers and the wider civil service, as Number 10 and the foreign office declined to comment.

The appointment of Sir Tim Barrow as Rogers’s replacement on Wednesday night is unlikely to mask the wider strains between some mandarins and ministers over Britain’s plans to trigger article 50 by the end of March.

Sir Ivan Rogers resigned on Tuesday. Photograph: Thierry Roge/European Union/EPA

Complaints from mandarins include the points that May’s office has centralised control, lacks communication skills and has been too quick to adopt a confrontational style with those offering independent advice.

Whitehall sources said senior civil servants from several departments are considering stepping down from their positions. However, it is “too soon” to say whether this is part of a one-off exodus of talent or part of a cyclical loss of staff, one source added.



Rogers’s sudden resignation on Tuesday, weeks before Brexit negotiations are due to start, prompted a flurry of media appearances by Iain Duncan Smith on Wednesday.

The former welfare secretary claimed that Rogers had leaked information embarrassing to ministers, was not trusted and was among a group of civil servants who too unthinkingly accepted the word of other EU nations.

“The truth is, I think there’s a little bit of sour grapes going on here because he’s not really included much in the discussion about how they are going to go about this negotiation, partly because … I think ministers don’t fully trust him,” the former Conservative leader said.

Another former minister, Peter Lilley, also accused Rogers of “sour grapes”, while Tory MP Dominic Raab said that the senior diplomat’s “heart hasn’t really been in Brexit” and his resignation would be “quietly, cautiously and respectfully welcomed at the top of government”.

The criticisms prompted an unusually strong defence from the head of the top civil servants’ union who accused May of failing to back the independence of its senior mandarins.



Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, said the prime minister was “sitting back” as Rogers and the role of the civil service as a whole was criticised.

“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 against the idea of Rogers’s 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.”

In a 1,400-word farewell email to his staff, Rogers said civil servants still do not know the government’s Brexit priorities and “serious multilateral negotiating experience is in short supply in Whitehall”.



It is understood that Rogers, known for his strong opinions, maintained a close relationship with May when they worked together at the Home Office.

However, he fell out with her aides in December when it emerged that the diplomat had written a memo saying that it could take 10 years to negotiate an EU trade deal.

Rogers’s allies denied claims he had leaked the paper and said he had instead been undermined by May’s top advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, after Downing Street failed to back him.

Labour has called for David Davis, the Brexit secretary, to make a statement to the House of Commons about Rogers’s resignation when MPs return from their Christmas break on Monday.



Rogers may have a chance to explain his version of events. He has been invited to give evidence to the European scrutiny committee early this year and has been told the invitation still stands.

