The fundamental issue revealed by the resignation of the home office perm sec Rutnam is the yawning gap between what Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings want post Brexit UK to be on 1 Jan 2021 and what senior civil servants think is deliverable. So the PM and his chief aide...
want there to be a fully functioning new immigration system by then, whereas officials fear there’s not enough time. J and C argue the police should be able to keep us safe if we are no longer part of European Arrrest Warrant system. Officials can’t concur. Downing St thinks...
we can ward off pandemics if we withdraw from the EU’s Early Warning and Response System. The department of health is not so sure. Even the legendary intellectual dexterity of the mandarin class - Sir Humphrey - struggles to give ministers the advice they crave about...
the new likely post-Brexit health, scientific, security, law-and-order, immigration settlements (inter alia), namely that there will be no degradation from the status quo and that the delivery timetable is realistic. If you are on Cummings side of the road, the problem is...
Whitehall defeatism. In Whitehall itself, the crux is that politicians have no practical experience of managing or delivering anything. This conflict between Downing Street and Whitehall will define Johnson’s first term in office.
PS a Downing Street official tells me Home Office officials have not told Johnson and Cummings that the immigration reforms cannot be delivered by the due date, and they’ve had the opportunity in two big meetings. According to my sources, that is bad news for Downing St delayed.
