It was the day after the Oscars and a string of Eurosceptic lovelies had turned out to see who would pick up the coveted prize of least supportive actor for their bit-part roles in this year’s blockbuster, The Referendum.
Bernard Jenkin (C, Harwich & North Essex), who in his youth was often mistaken for a thinner Alec Baldwin, was the first to take the stage with an urgent question on whether it is fair that the civil service should be banned from giving information to ministers who favour Brexit. It’s unconstitutional, he said, and dishonest.
Michael Fabricant, MP for Lichfield by day, Vidal Sassoon model by night, was even more blunt. “A huge blunder,” he said. “It’s petty and vindictive.”
The objections went on. Liam Fox (C, North Somerset) said it went to the heart of accountability; Sir Bill Cash (C, Stone) said voters would lose what scant trust they had in politicians over this; and Paul Flynn (Lab, Newport West) called it gibberish and utterly unworkable.
To each of these, Matthew Hancock, the poor soul who had been told to defend the government line, popped up and wearily trotted out the same lack-of-acceptance speech: the government has a position (although some members of it are allowed to disagree and keep their jobs) and civil servants work for the government, not the opposition. Eurosceptic ministers can always resign if they don’t like it.
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The cabinet secretary had set this out in a delphic memo. Civil servants can “check facts” for their Eurosceptic ministers, but “cannot provide new facts”. Presumably this means that it’s OK to ask a departmental lackey to confirm that Ljubljana is still the capital of Slovenia and how it is spelt, but you can’t ask them to let you know who now runs Ireland.
It does seem to be a very odd situation, although perhaps no different from the principle that the civil service shouldn’t help any opposition, be it the technical opposition led by Jeremy Corbyn or the more effective one sitting behind Mr Hancock. Much more of this and they will need to think about putting wing mirrors on the dispatch box.
The ridiculousness of it all was brought home by Andrew Murrison (C, South West Wiltshire), who pointed out that while Michael Gove and Iain Duncan Smith can’t be given any civil service briefing that helps the Leave campaign, it would be fine for them to request the same facts under the Freedom of Information Act or to get a Labour MP to table a written parliamentary question on their behalf.
Then up popped the stately home that is Sir Edward Leigh, MP for Gainsborough for the past 33 years, who wanted to talk about the next generation. “Say for a moment that I am young, ambitious, good-looking,” he said. But you are, Sir Edward, you are, they echoed.
What, he went on, should I do as an eager-to-please young tyro if I happen to favour the Out campaign? Do I just shut up for four months? Mr Hancock resisted the urge to say “I wish you would.”
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While these family squabbles were going on, Labour were largely staying quiet. Most of them want to stay in the EU and, as Tom Watson, their deputy leader, observed: “I’m not in the strongest of positions to lecture the poor minister on handling splits in his party.”
All he could do was suggest that either the government gives ministers free rein to act without impediment or it sacks them. “It cannot be fudged for the next 114 days,” he said. Oh, I bet it can.
