Rishi’s freeports plan ‘nobbled by the Blob’

After former Mail editor’s blast for civil servants...

THE Whitehall ‘Blob’ has been accused of watering down postBrexit plans for freeports.

Senior officials are said to have effectively ‘killed’ ministers’ hopes for the low-tax, low-regulation zones – a key policy designed to boost local economies.

Plans are said to be less radical than envisaged, while the number has been capped at ten, leaving dozens of areas disappointed. It is the latest row between the Government and the unelected civil servants dubbed ‘the Blob’, who are widely believed to be undermining Tory manifesto pledges.

Last night Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who championed the idea of freeports, was urged to demand improvements to the plans from his Treasury team.

Tory MP John Redwood said: ‘The first freeports should have opened on January 2. The Treasury dragged their heels.

‘Clearly something that rattles the EU’

I think it’s deeply disappointing. They should review the whole thing, speed up proper freeports and make a much more generous offer.’

He added: ‘I think the Chancellor should go back to his original views.’

Andrew Bridgen, whose North West Leicestershire constituency will be home to the only inland freeport, added: ‘I wouldn’t want to water down or curtail them, or restrict their numbers.

‘It’s clearly something that rattles the EU, that we’re going to outcompete them.’

Eight areas in England were chosen as the first freeports earlier this year, while a further two could be opened in Scotland and Wales, with the first in Teesside operating as of last Friday. Companies based in the zones pay less tax and enjoy simpler planning processes, freed from rules set by Brussels, to attract more investment.

But Richard Ballantyne of the British Ports Association, who sat on the Government’s Freeports Advisory Panel, said the scheme could have been more ambitious. ‘We’ve got about 140 locations across the country that handle freight,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph. ‘If the Government does agree with this policy, why is it just restricting it to eight now and maybe two or three more?’

Another row with the civil service ‘Blob’ – a term coined by Michael Gove for the educational establishment – is brewing in the Home Office. Home Secretary Priti Patel is said to have labelled her officials as ‘not fit for purpose’, while in turn they are said to privately describe her as a ‘moron’.

Last week former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre pulled out of the race to become chairman of broadcasting regulator Ofcom with a withering attack on the civil service. He described his experience of applying for the role as an ‘infelicitous dalliance with the Blob’, claimed that only Left-wingers are given top public sector jobs and said it was senior civil servants ‘not elected politicians, who really run this country’.