𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A Reform government would take back control from the civil servants that have run Britain for decades, a top adviser to Nigel Farage has warned. Danny Kruger said Cabinet Ministers will have the power to hire and fire Whitehall mandarins – to make it clear who’s in charge.

Mr Kruger, who has been charged by Mr Farage with preparing the party for government, said: “Over generations, authority has systematically drained away from elected ministers and pooled in the dark corners of Whitehall”. And the failure of politicians to assert themselves “lies at the very root of Britain’s national stagnation”, he said.

There have been long-standing claims that officials, rather than elected politicians, really run the country. Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Gove spoke about “the blob” – initially referring to the teaching establishment but a term later used to mean civil servants who blocked government policies.

And former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said there was some truth in the TV sitcom Yes Prime Minister, which showed a Whitehall mandarin called Sir Humphrey thwarting the plans of Government Ministers.

Writing for website Politics Home, Mr Kruger said: “Political parties arrive in Whitehall expecting the ancient machinery of state to passively translate their democratic mandates into reality. Instead, they encounter a system engineered, above all, for its own self-preservation.”

He added: “This institutional decay lies at the very root of Britain’s national stagnation. Over generations, authority has systematically drained away from elected ministers and pooled in the dark corners of Whitehall, especially in the network of unaccountable quangos that have appeared in the last two decades.”

Setting out the changes Reform will introduce, he said: “We will give ministers the long-overdue power to appoint and dismiss their permanent secretaries and immediate advisory teams, ending the absurdity of a bureaucracy that effectively selects its own overseers.”

But he claimed Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham had allowed civil servants to consolidate even more power.

“The Prime Minister has fallen victim to the Senior Civil Service’s favourite trick: allowing politicians to announce superficial reorganisations while the top mandarins quietly consolidate actual authority.

“Under Burnham’s watch, Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo has successfully expanded her institutional grip, now commanding the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Cabinet Office, ‘No 10 North’ and the Civil Service simultaneously. To reflect her supremely powerful position, she was promptly given a new office right next to the Prime Minister’s study.

“But be under no illusions: once Burnham’s star fades, she will move fast against her benefactor to defuse any changes that threaten the primacy of the Civil Service.”