This ruthless Sir Humphrey needs to be cut down to size

Sir HumpHrey Appleby, played brilliantly by the late Nigel Hawthorne in Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s superb BBC series yes, minister, is everyone’s idea of the archetypal senior civil servant.

He would use a mixture of guile, flattery and low cunning to bend politicians to his will. Whitehall insiders agreed it was an accurate portrayal of the modus operandi employed by permanent secretaries.

When the wildly successful series and its sequel, yes, prime minister, were first broadcast, civil servants began to model themselves on Sir Humphrey, adopting his mannerisms and vocabulary.

yet while Appleby pulled the strings, he was careful always to maintain the pretence that the politicians were in charge. No such restraint appears to apply to Sir Humphrey’s real- life modern incarnation, Sir mark Sedwill.

Judging by recent photographs, Sedwill actually looks a bit like Appleby. But there the similarities end. According to a source quoted in a newspaper profile: ‘He can’t cope with the fact that he is not prime minister.’ Sedwill is not a man given to false modesty, or respecting the opinions of democratically elected ministers. He treats Cabinet members with undisguised contempt and takes decisions without consulting them.

effectively, he runs a government within the Government, formulating policies and presenting them to the pm as a fait accompli.

Woe betide anyone who crosses him. One can’t imagine Sir Humphrey ever accosting a minister in a dark corridor and warning him: ‘Don’t underestimate how vindictive i can be.’

That is what Sedwill is reported to have done to former Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, who was sacked last week after being accused of leaking details of Theresa may’s decision to involve the Chinese in building Britain’s 5G mobile phone network, despite security concerns.

Sedwill’s threat was made in January, after the two men crossed swords over the defence budget. Williamson, who denies responsibility

for the leak, believes his dismissal was payback for crossing Sedwill, who decided he was guilty before the inquiry began.

This column holds no brief for Williamson, aka private pike, who appears to be overly ambitious, over-promoted and overly pleased with himself.

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his account certainly seems to have the ring of truth about it. Sedwill has a reputation, in which he revels, for bullying ministers. His overbearing behaviour is apparent at No 10’s morning meetings, where he is said to push people aside to secure the seat next to mrs may.

more fool ministers if they allow themselves to be intimidated by Sedwill. But he is only able to get away with it because he is indulged by may. Sedwill has ruthlessly exploited the intellectual inadequacy of the prime minister and her mistrust of other politicians to become the most powerful civil servant in history.

He is now Cabinet Secretary, Head of the Civil Service and National Security Adviser — the first man to hold all three posts simultaneously. it can’t be healthy for such power to be concentrated in a single civil servant, especially one with apparent contemptuous disregard for elected politicians.

Sedwill first spotted may’s vacuity when she was Home Secretary and set about filling it. Talk to anyone who attended a meeting at the Home Office in those days and they will tell you she contributed next to nothing and always deferred to Sedwill.

may was little more than his glove puppet. From what i can gather, the same now applies in Downing Street. may takes more notice of her civil servants than her Cabinet colleagues. That’s how the ultra- remainers in Whitehall have managed with ease to hijack the Brexit talks.

Sedwill may resent the fact that he isn’t the prime minister, but that doesn’t stop him acting like one. He arbitrarily ordered preparation for a No-Deal Brexit to be scrapped, without consulting ministers or parliament, thus stripping away our most potent bargaining chip. The fact that remainer mps agreed with him is beside the point.

As one of the architects of project Fear, he wrote a memo (conveniently leaked) warning of a 10 per cent rise in food prices and civil unrest in Northern ireland unless may’s dismal, defeatist ‘deal’ was passed. So much for the civil service’s muchproclaimed neutrality.

He’d maintain he was only doing his job, acting in the public interest. But why should a mere civil servant have the right to determine what’s in the public interest and what isn’t? mind you, a mere civil

servant isn’t exactly how Sedwill sees himself. ministers accuse him of behaving like an ‘emperor’.

Certainly he appears to have imperial designs of his own. This week he is due to lead a delegation of 15 senior Whitehall officials to Beijing, in what is described as a vainglorious ‘mandarin mission for mandarins’ — aimed at bypassing ministers and establishing himself as the main point of contact between the British Government and the Chinese.

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sounds about right. it would explain h i s, and mother Theresa’s, enthusiasm for giving Huawei part of the contract to build the 5G network, in the teeth of opposition from ministers, the security services and our closest allies.

it would also explain his determination to persuade may to sack Williamson, who refused to send any official from the moD on the trip. By his own alleged admission: ‘Don’t underestimate how vindictive i can be.’

However rotten our politicians, at least we have an opportunity to remove them at the ballot box every few years. One of the main reasons 17.4 million voted Leave is that we don’t want to be governed by unelected foreign bureaucrats we can never get rid of.

yet the same applies to our own civil service. most of the time they behave properly with due diligence. But, occasionally, especially over Brexit, they work deliberately to undermine the democratically expressed will of the people.

Sedwill seems regularly to overstep the mark, to wield vast power without responsibility or accountability, largely because of the limpet-like dependency of the outgoing prime minister.

He is the very embodiment of the Deep State.

The good news is that, when may is eventually dragged screaming and kicking from No 10, Sedwill is likely to be out on his ear, too.

Two of the leading candidates to replace her have promised to show him the door. Not before time, either.

This particular Sir Humphrey needs to be cut down to size.