After Sir Cover-Up... enter Lord Stitch-Up

THIS paper has often raised concerns about ‘ Sir Cover-Up’ Jeremy Heywood, the secrecy-obsessed Cabinet Secretary and political fixer the BBC used to call ‘ the most important person in the country that nobody has ever heard of’.

But now this shadowy figure, never held to account, has gone further than ever in compromising the precious political neutrality of the Civil Service he leads.

Indeed, his instructions to Whitehall mandarins on how they must skew the EU referendum debate in favour of the ‘remain’ camp appear to plumb new depths of constitutional impropriety. Astonishingly, he orders them to withhold papers on EU matters from eurosceptic ministers and go behind their backs to deliver them to No 10.

This applies even to documents relating directly to departmental responsibilities for which their political bosses are answerable to Parliament.

Meanwhile, special advisers to ‘outers’ are banned from campaigning for their employers except in their own time. This means they cannot work for withdrawal while on paid leave.

Like the shameful gag on eurosceptics, which was supposed to have been lifted after David Cameron struck his phoney deal, Sir Cover-Up’s guidelines amount to yet more censorship.

But then what better could be expected of this enemy of open debate, who slid so smoothly from Tony Blair’s sofa to the inner counsels of Gordon Brown and Mr Cameron, exercising sweeping powers beyond the spotlight of public scrutiny?

After all, the charge sheet against him is long and depressing: campaigning to stop the Chilcot Inquiry publishing vital documents about the run-up to the Iraq War; demanding judicial status for the Leveson Inquiry, with hugely damaging consequences for Press freedom; and now fighting to restrict access to Freedom of Information laws.

The whole point of calling this referendum was that the EU question was so important it should be decided directly by the people.

Mobilising the Government machine to conceal facts from one side, while pumping out propaganda for the other, makes a tawdry mockery of democracy.

How long before Sir Cover-Up is rewarded by being elevated to Lord Stitch-Up?