Civil Service Impartiality Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Civil Service Impartiality

Michael Fabricant Excerpts
Monday 6th March 2023

(1 year, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Jeremy Quin Portrait Jeremy Quin
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I thank my right hon. Friend. Work is being undertaken at the moment to look at the conclusions we will draw from the work by Sir Nigel Boardman, PACAC and the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and I would not wish to pre-empt any of those discussions. I do not know—I say this in all candour to my right hon. Friend—whether that has been considered, but there will be a further opportunity in this House, when we come forward with our proposed reforms in due course, for such matters to be raised.

Michael Fabricant Portrait Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)
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Is it not ironic that Sue Gray was the head of the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, and it is she who has put the civil service under a dark shadow—a shadow that need not have existed? Is it not also the case that this was therefore bad judgment by her, but also bad judgment by the Leader of the Opposition, who, when asked 10 times this morning to give more information about when the discussions began, evaded it 10 times?

Jeremy Quin Portrait Jeremy Quin
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I thank my hon. Friend. I think it may well have been a miscalculation by the Leader of the Opposition. He can do his best to rescue that by being fully open about the facts.