May’s party-first policy could come back to haunt her

As trust evaporates in Whitehall, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, the former head of the Foreign Office, insists officials are not trying to undermine the government. “They do what their political masters tell them but morale is low because most people fear that what they are doing is going to be hostile to the economic wellbeing of the country. The prime minister looks as if trying to hold the party together is her primary concern.”

Lord Kerslake, the former head of the civil service, says officials are increasingly torn. “The civil service have a loyalty to the government of the day but they are also servants of the crown and the country. Normally there isn’t a conflict because you expect the government to act on behalf of the country but in the situation we are now in, where the interests of the Conservative Party are not necessarily the same as the interests of the country and the consequences are so grave, I do feel that their responsibility to crown and country needs to play in.”

Yesterday, Sir Nicholas Soames tweeted a photograph of the Parliament Square statue of his grandfather Winston Churchill, with the words “What on earth should we do in the national interest?” It is the only question that matters but Mrs May seems more interested in the unity of the Tory Party and her own political survival than the fate of the country.

Source: May’s party-first policy could come back to haunt her

This underlines what has been pretty obvious for some time.