Gove has accused civil servants of slacking off after doing their statutory 37-hour week

Michael Gove has accused senior civil servants of blocking new policies — and their staff of knocking off on Wednesday afternoons if they have worked their statutory hours.

In a pointed cabinet intervention last week, after Theresa May had told ministers they must focus on domestic policy as well as Brexit, the environment secretary said ministers were being thwarted by civil servants.

A cabinet source said: “Michael said they work their 37 hours a week and then they go home, even if that is Wednesday afternoon. No 10 has been captured by the civil service.”

Another insider said: “Gove went on a rant . . . and said something along the lines of: ‘Do the civil service still work for 12 hours and get two