Civil servant who was first and only choice for the top job
IF EVER there was an archetypal career civil servant who observers had once marked as destined for the top it was Sir Mark Sedwill.
The Oxford-educated Cabinet Secretary – the most powerful official in the Government – was appointed to the post in 2018, when he was described as then Prime Minister Theresa May’s “first and only choice”, with no recruitment process taking place.
Along with it he was also Head of the Civil Service and National Security Adviser.
But while he rose from the ranks to win the admiration of fellow Whitehall mandarins, it is said his power began to dwindle after Boris Johnson took the reins at No10.
There was trouble when, in April 2019, Sir Mark demanded ministers cooperate with his inquiry into the leaking of discussions at the National Security Council about the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.
The NSC’s talks are supposed to be confidential, and several cabinet ministers denied they were involved in the leak.
There was further controversy in November 2019 when Sir Mark blocked the publication of a document written by civil servants to cost the Labour Party’s fiscal plans before a general election. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell had complained to Treasury Permanent Secretary Tom Scholar in a meeting, arguing that it would interfere in the upcoming general election.
Sir Mark’s move now is being interpreted as part of a major reform of Whitehall.
Sir Mark joined the Civil Service in 1989, serving in Egypt, Iraq, Cyprus and Pakistan with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. By 2009 he had been appointed as HM Ambassador to Afghanistan, before becoming Nato senior civilian representative in the country the following year.
After a year as FCO Political Director he became Permanent Secretary at the Home Office from 2013 to 2017.
Born in Ealing, west London, Sir Mark attended Bourne Grammar School in Bourne, Lincolnshire, where he became head boy, before going on to gain a Bachelor of Science (BSc), at St Andrews university, and later a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in economics from St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and President of the Special Forces Club and is married with one daughter.
Sir Mark had been the target of increasingly hostile briefings in No10 ahead of an expected overhaul of the Cabinet Office and senior ministers, in what is regarded as an inevitably bruising public inquiry into how the Government has handled the pandemic.