CHANCELLOR TELLS TREASURY STAFF: YOUR INTEGRITY IS NOT IN DOUBT
PHILIP HAMMOND has called Treasury staff together to reassure them their “integrity” is not in doubt after attacks from Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The Chancellor invited the entire Treasury staff to a meeting in an atrium, beginning by thanking them “for their professionalism and impartiality”. In an implied rebuke to Mr ReesMogg, he said he “recognised they had been under fire recently” and that it was “unprecedented”. “I would defend your professionalism to any critics,” said the Chancellor.
One source present said Mr Hammond told staff he was “disconcerted that their impartiality — and the wider civil service integrity — had been called into question”.
He said he “hugely valued their advice” and respected their dedication to working so closely with other Whitehall departments whilst under scrutiny. At one point he told staff to “keep calm and carry on”, prompting appreciative laughter.
The pep talk followed uproar among civil service leaders last week when arch-Brexiteer Mr Rees-Mogg accused Treasury officials of fiddling forecasts to thwart a hard Brexit.
Officials were dismayed when Brexit minister Steve Baker appeared to give support to the allegation, by saying he had heard a similar claim made in private by a think-tank boss — only to retract his remarks later when the think-tank denied his account. MPs] would actually support staying in the single market and the customs union.”
Labour MP Wes Streeting told the Standard there was “no majority for a hard Brexit that would torch the economy”. He called on party leader Jeremy Corbyn “to get off the fence and show the sort of courage being demonstrated by Ken Clarke and Anna Soubry in the national interest”.