A top civil servant who Priti Patel tried to get rid of is facing a furious backlash amid claims he 'obstructed' successive home secretaries.
Poor you Mr Putnam. “It’s all to play for.”MILLIONAIRE lawyer “Sir” Keir Starmer QC – he pretends to hate the title – is now a racing certainty for Jeremy Corbyn’s job as Labour leader.This chameleon politician is a protege of Labour dud Gordon Brown. Sir Philip Rutnam presided over: 2012’s £13.3 billion west coast rail franchise fiasco, £38 billion Network Rail upgrade failure, HS2(! Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, reportedly recently tried to get Sir Philip removed from his post at the Home Office Sir Philip told the Home Affairs Select Committee in November 2018 that he felt 'personal responsibility for everything that happens in the Department'.He also said he felt 'personal responsibility for the fact that we did not spot the Windrush events sooner'.However, he said that was 'not the same, though, as saying that I am responsible in the sense that I should have done something in real time to prevent it'. Was your self-importance horribly undermined by a feisty Home Secretary that told you what to do? It’s been daunting but also hugely exciting. Others are on borrowed time.Casualties could yet include the biggest fish of all, Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill — Rutnam’s predecessor at the Home Office.If he survives, it will be at the cost of his second huge job as head of national security.Few of these shadowy Whitehall aristocrats will welcome Sir Calamity’s decision to wash their dirty linen in public.And with a career-long catalogue of costly blunders to his name, Witnesses might testify to his “sneaky and snivelling” managerial style — including perhaps Amber Rudd, who blames him for destroying her career as a Cabinet high-flier.Rutnam left her to swing for his department’s unforgivable Windrush scandal and the deportation of innocent West Indian migrants.As Ms Rudd fell on her sword, Rutnam “went missing”.“She repeatedly asked for the information but it was never forthcoming,” says a friend.“Then a week after she resigned, the data was made available. I’ve now been Disability Champion for nearly a year. Ed Sheeran named baby Lyra after main character in his favourite book Messi ‘agrees Man City contract worth £623M’ as dad flies to Barca for talks How to get 48 days off work until next Xmas by taking 18 days of annual leave Thrifty mum makes 90 meals for just £200 - and it only took her one afternoon Back-to-school with the Radfords as they share how to get 22 kids organised©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. And the Home Office said ‘no formal complaints’ had been made.On Tuesday police came under fire for failing to stop a group of eco-warriors as they ripped up the lawn outside Trinity College in Cambridge. Selecting the WORST possible people for positions as a deliberate policy – their inevitable outrages, terrible decisions, bloviating, media shit-storms, failed policies, etc etc etc, are intended to distract attention from the spider at the centre of the web.
In the wake of his resignation, the Westminster storm surrounding Patel has intensified. Sir Philip Rutnam, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office Credit: Twitter. Driving through the crime and illegal immigration crackdown demanded by voters who handed Boris Johnson his landslide victory.Snooty Permanent Secretary Sir Philip Rutnam — known by critics as “Sir Calamity” — seemed determined to block, humiliate and undermine his new boss at every turn.Newspapers quoted highly placed Home Office “insiders” accusing Priti Patel of shouting, swearing and that old stand-by, “bullying”.MI5 allegedly barred her from seeing their most secret files — a leak uniquely and officially dismissed by MI5 itself.“His denial is unconvincing,” says a Cabinet minister from another department.“Either officials were leaking without his knowledge, in which case he was useless, or it was at his behest, in which case it was indefensible.”The Home Office, a sprawling blancmange of bungling inertia, stands as a monument to serial Whitehall ineptitude.Like Japanese soldiers still fighting World War Two long after Armistice Day, it remains stoutly pro-EU.The same is true of the three other Great Offices of State — HM Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office — collectively known as The Blob.The Foreign Office was especially contemptuous of its ex-Foreign Secretary, now our Prime Minister, and leaked copiously about his supposed shortcomings.Between them, they form a bastion of knighted bureaucrats who see themselves as the real UK government, guarding us from Britain’s “here today, gone tomorrow” elected politicians.They have enormous power to sabotage policies they dislike or kick them into the long grass.Crucially, at this point in UK negotiations, they are also universally pro-Brussels and anti-Brexit.Rutnam, an advocate for Project Fear, is perhaps just the first of these god-like figures to go.Anti-Brexit Treasury chief Sir Tom Scholar has already been given the Black Spot.
Prior to this, he was the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport for five years. The whole thing was very odd.”“He seemed to think Priti was stupid and treated her as such,” says an insider.Once exposed to daylight, such arrogance, coupled with third-party allegations of racism, can be politically explosive.We are witnessing a deceptively important battle on the home front, fought in parallel with Brexit.Downing Street believes it is winning the fight for sovereignty. While working as Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, the most senior civil servant in the British government, he received £180,000 – £184,999 as salary. how long did it take YOU to give in to passion? Company registration number 09788095.