Kwasi Kwarteng’s sacking of his most senior Treasury official will having a “chilling effect” on civil servants and marks a “problematic” shift towards ministers wanting advice that aligns with their own views, a former head of the civil service has warned.
Lord Kerslake, a crossbench peer and former civil service chief, said the move by the new chancellor to remove Tom Scholar as permanent secretary as his first act in office was “pretty disgraceful” and a “retrograde and worrying” step.
