Anger over Nazi insult aimed at Leave backers
THREE former Civil Service heads sparked fury last night after they compared ‘rabid’ Brexiteers to snake oil salesmen and Nazis.
Lord Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary under Tony Blair and David Cameron, said accusations that Whitehall was trying to sabotage Brexit were ‘completely crazy’.
He said of Brexiteers: ‘Of course, if you are selling snake oil, you don’t like the idea of experts testing your products.’
His predecessor, Lord Turnbull, accused Leave supporters of using tactics similar to those adopted by Nazis in the 1930s.
He compared their claims to the myth of the ‘stab-in-the-back’ perpetuated by the German Right following their country’s defeat in the First World War.
A third former Civil Service head, Lord Butler, accused ‘rabid Brexiteers’ of seeking to ‘intimidate’ the Civil Service.
Leading Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith said last night: ‘They call us swivel-eyed, mad and now they call us fascists. Where they cannot argue any more they always resort to abuse, and that is what this is all about. They have lost the argument and so call critics mad, bad or dangerous to know.
‘It is typical of the Establishment view of life.’
One Cabinet source said it was the Treasury’s Project Fear quotes that had turned out wrong, adding: ‘Where was the emergency Budget? Where was the immediate economic shock? So who is it who’s selling snake oil?’
The row erupted last week after Brexit minister Steve Baker said Treasury forecasts were ‘always wrong’ and officials were deliberately trying to influence policy in favour of staying in the EU customs union. At the weekend, senior Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg accused officials of ‘fiddling the figures’.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd stepped in yesterday to tell Mr Baker and Mr Rees-Mogg they were ‘wrong’ and British civil servants are respected around the world.
Defending his former colleagues, Lord O’Donnell said honesty and objectivity ran through the core of civil servants ‘like a stick of rock’ and the Brexit forecasts would have been made in good faith.
Responding to claims that Whitehall officials distorted their analysis, he told ITV’s Peston On Sunday: ‘I think that’s completely crazy.
‘Civil servants operate by the Civil Service code. Their job is to look at the evidence and present it as best they can, analyse the uncertainties... but that’s what they do, they’re objective and impartial.’
Lord Turnbull told The Observer the attacks on Whitehall were reminiscent of the ‘stab-in-the-back’ myth which emerged in Germany after the First World War and was later taken up by the Nazis. He said: ‘After the First World War there was an armistice, but the German army was treated as the losers. Then, at the start of the Nazi era, the “stabin-the-back” theme developed.
‘It argued that “our great army was never defeated, but was stabbed in the back by the civilians, liberals, communists, socialists and Jews”.
‘This is what these critics are trying to do. They are losing the argument in the sense they are unable to make their extravagant promises stack up, so they say: “Things would be OK if the Civil Service weren’t obstructing us”.
‘When you don’t succeed, you find someone to blame for your failure.’
In 2004, then known as Sir Andrew Turnbull, Lord Turnbull was embroiled in a political row after writing to former Labour Cabinet minister Clare Short, formally criticising her for claims she made about the behaviour of the British security services in the run-up to the Iraq war.
His intervention was described as ‘unprecedented’ and led to allegations that the Civil Service was being politicised.
Senior Tory MP Bernard Jenkin said yesterday former senior mandarins ‘now freely excoriate Brexit and Brexiteers’ on social media. He said their behaviour ‘suggests they are part of a conspiracy with their ex-colleagues still serving’.
Theresa May will meet the EU’s chief negotiator in Downing Street today as Brexit talks resume. The Prime Minister will see Michel Barnier when he attends a working lunch with David Davis at No 10.
‘They have lost the argument’