Case has shown ‘naivety’ and ‘inexperience’
Casual exchanges between UK’S leading civil servant and members of the Cabinet will damage his reputation, say mandarins
‘It is absolutely cringeworthy. The things he was saying, the way he was saying them, the chumminess of them all’
‘I’m sure he will be embarrassed by these remarks but they were made in the heat of the moment’
SENIOR civil servants have expressed shock at Simon Case’s Whatsapp messages with Cabinet ministers exposed in The Lockdown Files, saying they reveal a “naivety” and “inexperience” that has damaged his reputation.
Mr Case, who as the Cabinet Secretary is the UK’S top civil servant, was shown in the leaked messages appearing to mock travellers forced to stay in Covid quarantine hotels when returning to Britain, calling it “hilarious”.
He also spoke candidly about Cabinet ministers, at one point saying Rishi Sunak, the chancellor at the time, was “going bonkers” in a row over contact tracing and calling Boris Johnson a “nationally distrusted figure”.
Downing Street yesterday stood by Mr Case amid calls for his removal from post, with the Prime Minister’s spokesman saying Mr Sunak retained confidence in him.
But mandarins who have served in senior positions in recent governments expressed their disquiet at the close and casual exchanges between Mr Case and members of the Cabinet.
One former permanent secretary told The Daily Telegraph the messages showed “a certain naivety and, to be honest, inexperience”, adding: “It will hurt his reputation.”
The figure said: “You should be a bit above the fray [as Cabinet Secretary]. I don’t know why he engaged in those sorts of exchanges. He didn’t need to.”
A former civil servant who advised prime ministers during a decades-long career in Whitehall is understood to have found the exchanges highly unusual in their political nature.
The concerns also stretch into the senior echelons of the current Civil Service, with some insiders noting how different Mr Case’s tone in the messages is to senior scientific advisers such as Sir Chris Whtty and Sir Patrick Vallance. A senior Whitehall source told this newspaper of the Case messages: “They are really embarrassing. It is absolutely cringe-worthy. The things he was saying, the way he was saying them, the awful embarrassing chumminess of them all.”
Mr Case and the Cabinet Office have not responded directly to the contents of the leaked messages, but allies have issued a defence.
A friend of Mr Case said: “I’m sure he will be embarrassed by these remarks, but they were made in the heat of the moment, in the middle of a national crisis, responding to a Cabinet minister, and do not represent the full policymaking process.”
Mr Case became the youngest ever Cabinet Secretary when he was appointed in September 2020 under Boris Johnson. He had never headed up a government department as a permanent secretary before taking up the position.
Mr Case is now on to his third prime minister, having served as Cabinet Secretary to Mr Johnson, Liz Truss and now Mr Sunak.
An unnamed cabinet minister was quoted in The Times on Monday calling for him to go: “Case is looking more and more ridiculous, I think he has to go. Rishi needs to clear him out.”
Downing Street yesterday said the Prime Minister continued to have confidence in Mr Case despite the comments in messages revealed in The Telegraph’s Lockdown Files.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “You heard the Prime Minister last week say that we won’t be getting into piecemeal bits of information, we think the inquiry is the right place to have this all set out.”