The Secret World of Whitehall Episode 3 The Network

this is the secret world of Whitehall decisions taken here behind closed doors affect all our daily lives I'm telling the inside story of what's gone on over the years in the great institutions at the very heart of government tonight how the hidden network of private officers operates every government Minister has a private office run by a small team of high-flying civil servants their job is to manage the minister's professional life and to protect guide and inform they told me we have one Allegiance you so we fight your battles for you we guard your back what many people don't realize is is the just how intimate relationship between US private office and their Minister isn't that intense loyalty whoever is there you know has to be seen to be believed but also working with the private office as shadowy figures sometimes dubbed the people who live in the dark they're the special advisers and unlike the neutral civil servants their party political and they've been many bloody power struggles waged within this most influential of Whitehall's secret networks the job in the private office can be the route to the top of the civil service all politics if you're young and ambitious 20 years ago the Chancellor Norman Lamont special advisor was one David Cameron who was with him on Black Wednesday today has been an extremely difficult and turbulent day Lamont had to resign as Chancellor after black Wednesday but David Cameron moved on to another top private office the special advisor to the Home Secretary Michael Howard if there his task was to advise Howard on political pitfalls and image presentation also doing the same thing as a special advisor in another ministry and then in number 10 was the young George Osborne he would sometimes work hand in glove with David Cameron and you think you've got a killer blow that what we said he hopes that when new labor came to power there were many more special advisers known in Whitehall as space is the study Ed Balls was chief's pad to the new chancellor Gordon Brown another spat learning his trade in the Chancellor's private office was the youthfully bespectacled Ed Miliband the new class of person has emerged there usually young graduates often with no experience outside politics who've come straight from university intellectually clever enthusiastic but III think that I don't think it's added to politics thirty years ago a TV satire showed how the top civil servant in the private office reacted to the intrusion of a political adviser I believe principal favors happiness is a Lloyd Pichardo system desert prepare and this is my political adviser oh yes of course mr. weasel lies yes Minister was depicting with complete historical accuracy how the real private office civil servants sought to marginalize the spazz navigate your games your offices what about friend oh he's being taken care of but this is the waiting room precisely sir but I'm Jim hacker special advisor the Minister now has a whole department to advise him sir look he needs me of course he does sir but until the master sends for you would you be so good as to wait all those special advisers are now an accepted part of the Whitehall scene it's the civil servants who've always been an remained the beating heart of the private office network when Allen Johnson became Home Secretary two years ago he was taken to be introduced to the young civil servants who made up his private office johner okay they honours and Natasha the security and apparently Charlotte please allow for Holly Louisa and I can kind of imagine family in Savannah no Carol Dara how is it sense for you avenge any idea how I see I think it was summed up by my very first private secretary I sitting with I don't know where to start what I mean what what do you do Cecil I run your private office and the purpose of your private office is to be your corridor into the rest of government you got to understand there's lots of civil servants who will come in to see you whose allegiance will be elsewhere to their permanent secretary to the department to number 10 he said we have one Allegiance you so we fight your battles for you we guard your back we convey what you want to the rest of the department and indeed to the rest of white hawk it's kind of you know five minutes but it's summed it up what sort of civil servants get chosen to work in the private office both bright people high flyers people are interested in politics and ministers and the private office becomes the golden ladder as it were to the top and if you some of the people who have become permanent secretaries any deed cabinet secretaries many of them have been private sectors in principle five surgeries on the way up that ladder Robin Butler was to become top man during after working long hours for three prime ministers in the number ten private office I first went into number 10 in 1972 and when I left I found that I had never seen my children their school clothes because I left before they were dressed in the morning and I never got home before they were asleep in bed in the evening going up in the ministries across Whitehall the private office normally has pride of place high up in the building there's a team of people out there sitting at desks who aren't my private office they're the people who worked you personally and they really plug me into the rest of the system they handle absolutely all the day-to-day activity they also arranged my diary moment by moment day by day and it goes beyond that because they get to know what you really want to do what your priorities are get to know what the problems are out there and help you and do the job which is your job as smoothly as they possibly can I would office is absolutely vital to administer me they are the eyes and ears within the department the two-way conduit the gatekeeper to that Minister they are the first source of immediate policy advice or communication advice before they then get the right officials in to advise the other great thing about the private office is it's the shock absorber of the system rather than a secretary of state Forex going round to Biff Secretary of State for why because of some slight in the Cabinet Room or some minute that's come through which is really designed to irritate or subvert the private office Network has a chat amongst itself to try and sue things the private office goes back to the very first Prime Minister Robert Walpole in the 18th century his private secretary was the son of the Earl of Dartmouth over the following two centuries as ministries became more powerful and government more involved in raising and spending public money the private office Network developed across Whitehall it was given a huge boost by Lloyd George when he became prime minister in the middle of the first world war he decided on a total reorganization of central government a powerful new number ten private office was to be the command and control center of Whitehall and for the first time a record would be made of cabinet decisions the National shorthand champion came Lord George's first private secretary I was ushered into the Cabinet Room there I Sadler the cabinet ministers around me and I took shorthand notes it was the first time that any short head writer I'd ever read in that cabinet room to take a cover discussion and then I typed it out on my typewriter starting with Sylvester's typewriter Lord George made number 10 the prototype for a private office in every Whitehall ministry he'd recruited so many staff to his own private office that they had to be housed in temporary huts in the number-10 garden that became known as Lord George's Garden Suburb over the years the power of the private offices has grown in every ministry they provide an unrivaled confidential network for the exchange of inside information and Whitehall gossip and a job in the private office is the aim for every civil service high flyer in Whitehall that's traditionally been a hierarchical place the pecking order in Whitehall is still very important the head of the department gets a big desk a big chair a thick carpet and a very high-class secretary note also that he has an individual coat stand and an O master on the wall is number two however it's a rather more functional map a smaller table and as you will note behind his head a mere pig on the wall for his coat but he has at least an individual if rather austere light not just a supermarket strip light like these two poor chaps we even have to share a room well I bet they both took double firsts and will both end up as ambassadors every ambitious young civil servant feels the pull of the private office private office I think this is probably one of the most interesting aspects of civil servants career yes it means really acting as the link between the Minister on the one hand and literally everybody else on the other members of parliament other ministers members of the public local authorities pressure groups the lot a sort of protector of the minister yes not always an appreciated protector but nevertheless a protector it meant of course a constant runaround but I was allowed half a day off to go and get married and strictly on the work side and if you enjoy politics and seeing how they work and how the whole Machine of government works as I do then I think you would find it fascinating what their choir is experienced because they're all been identified really as young high-flying civil servants expected to go a long way in their civil service careers and there seek having an atrium as close-up view government works wherever ministers go they'd like to be in constant touch with their private office Eric Valley a labor cabinet minister in the mid 70s would communicate using state-of-the-art technology Allison I wonder if all the briefing is complete for cabinet this morning I wonder if I could have a meeting with officials before they're over we've there's a possibility there might be a pnq which we'll keep in touch with parliamentary branch about but I think also the Prime Minister has questions this afternoon and he may get asked about it the private office includes the diary secretary a number of policy specialists and it's headed by the principal private secretary who's the main point of contact for the minister yes well I'm probably closer to him than any other source earned in the department I see everything he does I attend all his meetings I try to see things through his eyes I rather think that the role of the private office so far as the civil service is concerned is to wrap the Secretary of State or the minister in cotton wool keep tabs on him to make sure that he's certainly informed but also to perhaps insulate him from a degree of reality from the outside world but the private offices precise method of insulation can vary according to the Minister status as one ambitious politician discovered in 1970 I arrived in this room very large room completely empty of all paperwork and I assumed someone would tell me sooner or later what I supposed to do no one did and I sat there they brought the coffee and it was not for half an hour or so and I had read the papers though a lot of papers I remember that every national newspaper was available in my office for me to read it's only about an hour and a half later that I really came to grips with the problem that I had to be a self-starter I had to make it clear what I wanted to do and what the way I saw my job evolving there was no induction course no training no guidelines in many ways that's one of the most critical moments of a minister's career whether he ever survives that moment when if he doesn't emerge and take a command of the situation he will simply become the victim of the mountain of paperwork which will flow across his desk basically you were a bag carrier you were expected to ten minutes of meetings with your Secretary of State and listen and perhaps be asked for your opinion but you had no real power or responsibility you had a private office which reflected that I mean your private secretary was being trained as a civil servant in the experience of ministerial life nearly 40 years on Gordon Brown made the businessman Digby Jones a minister the Whitehall outsider was surprised by his private office I very quickly put a piece of paper on my desk and I wrote on it as best I could to put a word round the sound so there were lots of sort of O's and C's and s's and H's and exclamation marks and I can remember my private secretary came in and said what's that minister and I said that's the most common sound I hear in this office and it's about usually followed by the words very brave minister or I wouldn't do that minister and it's this because they are brought up to be risk averse their job in the private office is to serve their nation through the minister to keep the minister out of trouble and to keep the minister delivering on a greed policy that's their job but another key job of the private office is to scan the horizon and spot unexpected troubles especially when a minister is sent to a newly created Department my principal private secretary rang me up and said you began your first day briefing and all that I said you Prime Minister mentioned to you about change the name of the department I said yeah you did say something about productivities science he said god I just go through with you what the department's do to be called is do to be called the department of productivity energy which is usually described as e n industry and science said you will be the secretary of state for penis I said oh gosh that doesn't sound very good so I said well what can we do about this they unscrewed Department of Trade and Industry sign from outside Victoria Street fortunately they hadn't put the new name up there so I kind of stopped any further work on it before I went to the Prime Minister and I said you mind if I raise something with you promise I said the name of the department he said what's promised I explained to him I said give us the department for penis I'd be Secretary of State for penis he said well let's change it back and all these people threatened he said whose idea was this talk about success has many parents and failure is an orphan and no one said anything he said well let's just change it back this is your part for trade and industry so I came out of that meeting with my first great victory ah ha really because I was alerted to very early on by my principal private secretary when David Blunkett became education secretary in 97 he was the first blind cabinet minister and his principal private secretary Alan Evans had worked out in advance how to make blankets ministerial life easier we did have a bit of a glitch because I had ordered via my officials a state-of-the-art Braille machine which converted Word documents into Braille and his David Lanka didn't often use Braille but he did for formal set pieces like statements to Parliament or briefings with the Prime Minister and the first briefing to the Prime Minister we Julie produced in Braille in the first week and we handed to him is about five minutes to go before a meeting as often happens last minute and he grabbed it and went into number 10 what we hadn't realised was that the Braille machine was made in Sweden had a switch on the back of the machine which switched from English to Swedish Braille and we had handed him a perfect WordPerfect copy of Swedish Braille briefing on education policy he winged it and did very well must have been something of a surprise for him as he was trying to leave well he was he sort of had a bit of full of hurdy-gurdy Smorgasburg I think on the text in front of him Peter Mandelson had a succession of private offices across Whitehall before ending up as first secretary of state at the Department of Business Innovation and Skills the private office and the private secretaries play an absolutely crucial seminal professional I mean you know really brilliant role and it's just I mean it's a joy to work with them and to see that sort of dedication and working around the clock and that intense loyalty whoever is there you know has to be seen to be believed in his private office Mandelson goes through his diary Murray I'm the into Nottingham tomorrow yeah yeah reception tomorrow night is there anything I wanted I wanted to be mind time my thinking time my time my world the key coupling in the private office was described by Benjamin Disraeli the Victorian Chancellor and Prime Minister a century and a half ago he said relations between the minister and his private secretary are or should be among the finest that can subsist between two individuals except for the marriage state what many people don't realize is is the just how intimate the relationship between US private office and their ministers you do form a very close relationship with your private secretary the foreign secretary Douglas Hurd and his principal private secretary John sores would go for early-morning swims at international conferences sors is now head of mi6 I used to get my private secretary into a sort of discipline getting up early in the morning and swim and sometimes extremely cold but it just sharpens up your body on your mind the private office it's very big Eiling it is a very hothouse environment you live on very close terms with your ministerial Secretary of State and that is the most important person in your life and some civil servants when they enter into a private office can become too close to administer a sensational example of a private office relationship too close happened in the 60s John Vasil was private secretary to the Navy minister he was revealed as a KGB spy who'd been entrapped by the Soviet communists in a homosexual sting his minister at the Admiralty was Tom Galbraith an aristocratic Tory the revelation that the minister had sent his private secretary letters beginning My dear vassal caused a scandal the middle yurid rumors Galbraith resigned saying my long accustomed manner of dealing with officials has become an embarrassment Vasil was jailed for 10 years for spying for the Russians while Galbraith was exonerated by an official inquiry Alan Clark was one of mrs. Thatcher's ministers a renowned womanizer Clark revealed in his Diaries which were later dramatized how he lusted after his principal private secretary Jenny Easterbrook sexuality tightly controlled she makes plain her feelings on several accounts without expressing them take dictation no minister shorthand I'm an official not a typist the Enterprise Allowance King job relief scheme community scheme they will expect you to have at least some knowledge of those even if you can't fully get to grips with it what is wrong with two human beings of the opposite sex feeling attracted to each other identity were how that can be scandalous for some reason all the attention since the real half happy Christmas agenda as Secretary of State for Wales William Hague fared better than Alan Clark he and fee on Jenkins his private over secretary fell in love and they got married the one thing the private office does and I think does brilliantly actually is its loyal you do know that they will come in and they'll close the door and they'll tell you where they think this wasn't your finest moment or indeed let's equip you for which is hopefully a finer moment tomorrow but they are on your side and they see their job as serving their country through this Minister the private office is a vital part of the ability of a minister to run his or her department and to carry out policy essential to it is a relationship of trust and what I think is so remarkable is that in all the years I've been in politics I can think of no instance at all of a private secretary breaching that trust by telling stories about his minister or her minister to the newspapers to television to the media if they do it so wonderfully private that nobody ever discovers one remarkable episode that was kept completely secret by the number-10 private office happened in the summer of 1953 it involved the Prime Minister Winston Churchill he suffered a severe stroke and was no longer able to function Churchill's private office decided that the outside world must be kept in the dark and it conspired with the powerful press barons the Tory MP bill Dean's who was soon to become a Churchill Minister worked closely with the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph there was I gave you the way there was an agreement not a conspiracy to keep it quiet and it worked Churchill's private office that was headed by Sir jock Colville who'd been with him during the war reached a deal to keep news of Churchill's condition out of the press and Colville along with Christopher Soames Churchill's son-in-law ran the country while the real prime minister was kept incommunicado and out of public sight Colville and Soames were Churchill impersonators Christopher James knew how to get a signature right he could shine with contention so you saying after Churchill had a stroke that the pressure Soames was was attempting me signing like that yes I think there was a bit of that yes you know you know this you know as I do yes yes but I don't think really that the covering up of his cloak was deceitful I don't think it was a it were a black mark on government and they were quite important to maintain a and appearance of normality anyway we managed to do it all private officers in the ministries of Whitehall are repositories of secrets held by civil servants about their political masters they have to know every bit of the emotional life pretty well of the minister they're serving if they have mistresses they have to know about them in case they have to get them all times of night and day and they have to have no secrets from each other if it's going to work probably one of the ways that the private over civil servants discover everything they can happens every time a minister makes a phone call the way it worked with the Tory Minister Peter Walker in the 70s is the way it's still done in private office today everything a minister says is monitored by a private secretary listening on an extension outside I remember I first stepped into my private office I was horrified to note that when I picked up the phone another phone was being picked up at the exactly instantaneous moment and after about 10 minutes of this a member barging into the secretary's office it was just next door to mine and saying well do you think you're doing I'm listening into my conversations no you are not entitled to do that I didn't have any more of it and they then patiently explained to me that that every conversation conducted by a minister is listened to by his or her civil servant do that come as a surprise to you that someone listens in it did it did and I didn't realize at first so you having a conversation maybe deciphered would come in its private secretary and I start explaining oh I just sent out a phone call from number 10 and they were saying you'd say yes I know I was listening oh stop is rather rude but of course it's really important well most ministers accept that for everything apart from entirely private conversations an official will listen in to a conversation and that's actually quite important quite useful because if you're not listening in no doubt some will be listening in at the other end and then you'll have a phone call with the other private office they say well your Minister said X if you haven't been listening in how do you know your Minister said X rather than Y if I'm out having a phone call with a senior colleague another member of the cabinet lord knows how many people are listening probably four or five by the time you've finished probably the devii that the person responsible that area of policy the Department someone from my private office in my colleagues and that's the same it is a way of just not having to get into the car and go over or do you have a recorded meeting and that is very important not least because it stops you arguing a week later about what it was you did agree on and it also means that somebody automatically actions it there's always someone always at least one person sometimes the whole team it's bloody hole it's a spectator sport making a phone call when it's really really difficult you know if it's an issue about the spending review and you're in the last knockings of negotiations with the Treasury or it's a phone call with the Prime Minister you have lots of people without everyone listening in at both ends of the phone call the number-10 private office is the nerve center of Whitehall monitoring all calls and seeking to draw the positives from face to face meetings that the PM holds when I was health secretary I had the most frightful rouse with Margaret Thatcher I used to go over and have one-to-ones with her in Downing Street know all the most unbelievable lively round both of us quite liked having good lively political debate but she was could be pretty forceful and the private secretary from her office used to keep a minute you should say what it was we just agreed on when you probably wouldn't have got the two of us to agree on what we just agreed on to move it on a bit and my private office was to ring him up before I got back he told me later and he would mark it on the Richter scale for liveliness because that so they know what I would be like when I came in how lively had this one being a prime task for the civil servants in the private office network across Whitehall is to deal with the vast flow of paperwork that comes in requiring answers every day the private office has to go through it and decide what they can deal with themselves and what they should send up to the minister along with their advice and recommendations for action the private office have a very very important sifting role half the stuff that the department wants me to see it's just impossible for one man to see they have to decide on priority having sight on urgency have decide what the sector state will either want to see or needs to see what he needn't see what can just be farmed off a huge amount of information now comes into the private office far more than ever before and that puts a great burden and responsibility to other people who do the sifting because the balance actually still only has 24 hours in the day he still does need to sleep and therefore the people just outside his office the sifters who decide what he's going to see I'm much more important than they used to be because the volume of staff arriving there our office is so huge you have to concentrate again like so many things on what's urgent and what's important and what doesn't matter so much I think it actually probably got harder with the number of emails coming in because often people now will copy in all ministers that they're kind of insurance policy so you've seen it so the job of filtering of the private secretary in the private office becomes even more important you never know what they've shifted because you only see what comes to you but I'd never been let down by my private office so my assumption is that they did an absolute first class job they know what you need to see and things that have been copied that are relevant to you or don't affect you they perhaps save you the burden of sifting yourself if you could complete the first four by Saturday evening you're driving to collect them and deliver the other to the famous red box is the focal point of the private office every day private secretaries will pack at least one red box full of important papers for the minister to deal with overnight Casablanca I suppose the different private offices like this one in the Foreign Office develop their own techniques to encourage ministers to finish their boxes they pack the papers in a special order with the simplest at the bottom we've put in the signature folders first that's mostly letters to other MPs and to constituents which he's got to sign because they're supposed to be the easiest and then things are sort for information so it might be some intelligence it might be letters from influential people and then submission is usually recommending action or notes from us saying we've got a problem on this what you want to do about it she should open it up and on the very top beat down great word and then underneath would be brief every meeting here's the next day one person from one of your private offices told us that to encourage you to do your papers they would put in a chocolate bar some way into the box so that you would work through it and the job through a lot of gravy into chocolate bars no no no that's a got the receivers get he or she's got the wrong Minister if you would told that now I don't think they wouldn't get me with a chocolate bar almost all women are excessively conscientious characteristic of the gender mrs. Thatcher was too and so she and I would take him seeing red boxes a night and rely on the fact that we were able to sleep on seat for less time than most men require to get through these blasted boxes they're just hour after hour of them I had an arrangement with my private sector day he would signal in the Box when I'd reached the stage but I didn't need to go any further there was a submission on a European standard bus stop which had come out of some crackpot conference and what he meant was everything above that I were through my box that was fine that had to be done best done tonight if you can when I reached the European bus stop I knew firstly that was just a little signal below this if you've got time but below this is not priority some ministers do like taking the box home and working on it by themselves overnight other ministers will take a box home it'll come back in the morning I'm in with Ken Clark we do that sometimes say photo in Tony Scott's last night the box means I'm done in the morning and what did you think of that one Wow seems a good idea to get two or three of morning to mr. jazz of only Scotland on the whole Ken Clark would catch up with a box during the day are you staying tonight half 8 mins you defense to that buyer you're there later on I wanna clock alright I was younger than I've been to Ronnies for years I'm far too old but I used to get a run isn't I first started yes I would go to Ronnies and then get back home to 3:00 in the morning then do the Box are still going next day usually Chi cago Carmen with this occasion I mean there may be wondering I mean there's no point if you're dropping a sleepover box there is no point in doing it because actually all it's going to happen is you're going to make a frightful mess whatever you're reading and you won't remember it or you agree things that you shouldn't inside number 10 the top box of all is packed on the round table in the principal private secretaries office it's then taken to the Prime Minister when a Margaret Thatcher's private secretaries describes how the private office seeks to help the Prime Minister reach decisions on the contents of the red box what we tried to do would be on the top of any pile of papers however voluminous and complicated to strip it to its essentials sometimes you could do it in one word Prime Minister the Foreign Secretary says we should go to war with Iran agree question mark and she could write yes or no sometimes you have to build that up it'll serve rather so full of a response to a minister if he's put in a lot of thought a major paper and it comes out with no written in it exclamation mark you can't just write back a letter let's say the virus has read the Chancellor the seconds paper and says no you have to drawing on your knowledge of the prime minister's mind you have to perhaps enlarge that into a paragraph of carefully considered views which are contrary to those of the Chancellor's check are leading to a a balanced conclusion but that's part of the art and craft of the tray of the trade of private secretary Andrew Turnbull was principal private secretary in the number-10 private office for many years and saw how different Prime Minister's dealt with their red boxes mrs. Thatcher was legendary in doing the Box min is a time when I've Hoppus nine ten o'clock you got flat in evening ring the bell drop the box in run off and get home and come back 8:30 the next morning and it's nil all been read and what's more nearly all being dispatched in the sense of you've got an answer John Major was also very diligent I would say he was as diligent really put in the work didn't have quite a highest score on the decide factor so you got a few more please PLEASE refers but he was a believer in the daily books Tony Blair was much more I'll only deal the things that are really important a lot of it all of a weekend and and it wasn't fortunately in number 10 winning Gordon was prime minister but he was also a slow decider won number 10 official says the Gordon Brown would never finish his paperwork and as well as the red boxes the Prime Minister alone gets another other special box we had a separate box which was of a different color from the main box for particularly sensitive papers which which only the Prime Minister and the principal private secretary had access to what color was that box with blue with a red stripe and it was known as old stripy and this had the circum of secret intelligence files and the spy stuff and highly confidential stuff not just intelligence but other highly confidential and personal stuff which the principal private secretary was dealing with directly with the Prime Minister and was that was old stripy the one that the the Prime Minister would turn to first as far as you know quite often it was because it tended to have the lis in the sort of juicy stuff in it in the number-10 private office there would be regular battles over the red boxes between the civil servants and the political advisors there used to be the most unseemly competition on Friday evening to get the last word on to the various papers going into prime ministers weekend box under John Major or under mrs. Thatcher the political secretary who would be a political appointee and the head of the policy unit who is a political appointee would stay late and try and write a memo but right on top of the pile of papers saying really you should do this because I knew that's what would get read first at least before well the rest was read but the cabinet secretary and principal private secretary the two civil servants were much kanya would always outweigh them on a Friday evening to stick the very last word on top of their last word say there's no one to arbitrate those kinds of disputes and that's what we thought we needed Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Powell when you Labor's top to special advisors with the power to give orders to civil servants the super spades spawned a new satire welcome to you nothing knows there has been a massive irretrievable data loss the last seven months worth of new immigrant details have gone apparently lost in the computer so what is your great strategy for dealing with this come on I mean I'm all ears I'm Andrew Marr here Tony Blair was determined greatly to strengthen the political side of the number-10 private office he brought in a record number of 30 special advisers he wanted to ensure that ministers and their private offices across Whitehall danced to number tends to bloody number 10 my special advisor on communication site Chris Norton got a phone call from number 10 very irate because they'd heard I was doing at Empire State interview on The Today program and there was all help to to play what is he doing on there why is he doing it what's the subject it was actually the BBC journalist Alan Johnston who was held hostage for all that time who was on The Tempest a interview on a BBC but someone at number 10 had heard ten past eight we'll be talking to Alan Johnson Louis of course I think was everywhere so you certainly weren't allowed to kind of without number ten knowing about it be doing a major T major radio or TV interviews yeah when Johnson became Home Secretary two years ago almost his first act was to see that his force pads would have proper accommodation next to his own room and private office okay I need to know most fair to come to her thing they are to me Oh Arthur sort of s Emily Johnson discovered that his spats would have the room next door I know it got so far okay biggest excitement though that's not to banish is it we promise not to usually when you're not there yes great can remember you were concerned about the office for your special advisers and you kept them where my spiders gonna sit to remember any of them uh yeah do because some you know he's been to places where the spats were kind of down the end of a very long corridor in a long way from you and I'd been in places where they were very close to me but in a little hovel I mean I want to make sure they were properly looked after so yeah that was a that was a question a very important question about how the mechanics they were actually through another door in a very nice room probably the best accommodation they've ever had far too posh for them in my view but they they were through the door so we had a kind of connecting doors we were in touch with each other and that was important what is the role of the SPAD well III guess it depends on the relationship with the minister but for me it was always your the eyes and ears of your Minister you are the along with the private office you are that barrier between the minister and and and an outside world that wants to in many respects try and make your life much more difficult than it is or frustrate you in your objectives so you so you're an advisor on policy your advisor on communications and your adviser and this is where it changed from the civil servants civil service your adviser on political strategy and you can you can be party political and you're allowed to be and it's very important that you can do that so that you know you send the right signals and messages out to the public in terms of what you're trying to achieve as a political party part of it is ensuring that you don't just become a little Enclave where the only people you talk to your special advisers you have to bring other people in the sensible Secretary of State will have their principal private secretary in with the special advisers they can't get involved in the political discussions and they wouldn't but they're they're listening and the principal private secretary then works much better with the special advisers and as a result so does the whole department if special advisers act purely with the minister and lockout private office lockout the rest of the civil service if the Secretary of State colludes in that you will have a disastrous department and a very unsuccessful Secretary of State the new labor transport secretary Steven Byers brought in his own personally appointed special adviser called Joe Moore she alienated the private office by what they saw as her bullying style the department had become hugely controversial and in a notorious email on the day of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan Joe Moore wrote it would be a very good day to get out any bad news the ministry wanted to bury the email was sent to Alan Evans had been principal private secretary and was now the transplant ministries director of communications I was surprised with a very unusual email to have sent I think in the call but what did what did you think of it that states when you get an email like that this will be a good day to bury bad news I was shocked by the political pressure on Stephen bars had increased dramatically after Joe Moore's email was leaked from the ministry to the media if you mind please just move out of here please but bars refused to sack Joe Moore and she was kept hidden away until it was decided she should make a ritual public apology I'd like to sincerely apologize for the huge offense that I caused by sending the email I can well understand the distress people will feel with what I wrote and very much wish I hadn't written it in fact I find it difficult to believe that I did write it buyers now face calls to resign as he stopped by Germany and there was open conflict within the ministry I think that the furore around that was actually a reflection of the fact that the relationship between a special advisers office and the Civil Service at the time was a poor one and from what I know from the background to that you know there was there was perhaps some high-handed activity on the part of the special advisers there towards civil servants and civil servants then used the opportunity to get their revenge in the best way possible you know in as a dish served cold ministry officials leaked emails and stories about Joe mores behavior the leaks were so damaging that the top man during a transport Sir Richard Mottram used the strongest language to describe how bad the whole affair had been nothing to say could you understand why Richard Mottram said with what your foot were all fun well Richard in much myth language was capturing the predicament the department within at that time but I suppose that in a way that was seen as as the epitome of of how a special adviser things that it was but I would say that was a great exception the way many special advisers work in the fact that there are one or two examples where the relationship went wrong or in that case spectacularly wrong I don't think that takes away from the importance of the special advisor role Joe Moore was on her bike forced to resign as was her minister number-10 said there been civil war in the ministry though the number of special advisers have grown sharply on the new labor they weren't a new labor invention there been earlier spectacular examples of house pads could rupture relations not just within a ministry but between departments right up to the top of government one celebrated case involved the Treasury and number ten professor Allen Walters a right-wing market economist we've been brought into number ten by Margaret Thatcher was to be her special advisor on economics but the Chancellor Nigel Lawson who'd began as a mrs. Thatcher favorite came to resent Walters game public with views on the economy which differed sharply from his own the markets didn't know whether to believe what the Chancellor was saying because was that really the government's policy or was the government's policies different policy which they were getting from the Prime Minister's personal advisor and that made it impossible I thought for me to do my job properly objected to by having the Prime Minister's yeah and I'm pouring what he regarded as poison down it what I regarded as the truth Lawson delivered an ultimatum to mrs. Thatcher saying she had to choose between himself and Walters I do not be down with a feather for Chancellor of the Exchequer with all of the the importance and reputation of that position to come to me and say unless you sack one of your most loyal advisers I will resign I couldn't believe it I hated resigning suddenly the last thing I wanted to do next the fraught relations between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were made worse over a decade by anonymous attacks by each side special advisers on the other one briefing dramatically raised the stakes a top-level number-10 source with a good claim to know the mind of the prime minister describe Gordon Brown as psychologically flawed the brown acts including Edie Falls and the spin dr. Charlie Whelan reacted angrily pallbearer was very upset and rightly so because that's not a lot sort of thing that you expect from from number ten but so he was very upset where do you think the psychologically flawed came from according to the people who written about these things they came from Alastair Campbell that's certainly where we thought it came from that's not true it's not true no it's not true you didn't say that no really no yeah absolutely not true you did not say that no you surprised me well uh-huh he as far as about other things Michael while New Labour's top-2 attempted a public show of unity thus pads in their private offices escalated the war of smear and counter smear when Matthew Taylor a new political strategy advisor arrived at number 10 he sought to negotiate a peace treaty between the warring private offices of the tribes one of my many examples of naivety going in to number 10 was thinking that I could overcome the Gordon Brown Tony Blair conflict that I was somebody who really eyed Tony personally absolutely understood what a brilliant politician he was but actually had a bit more sympathy for Gordon and his kind of social democratic credentials I was the person to bring peace to this and I remember every week I used to go for a walk in the park for the first few months for that Miliband who was working for Gordon and we bought around the park and I would try and be as open and discursive with Ed as I possibly could about what number 10 was doing I would say you know I'm not sure Tony's right about this I'm trying to persuade him on this one on that one or the other and we get nitty sir at the end of the wall coming at us in James's Parkin and there'd be a pause and I'd wait for ED to share with me in what was happening the Treasury and when Gordon's persuasions were and way away as preferences lay and there'd be nothing a head would just say thanks for that and I came to the Treasuries are I did that for a few weeks and then came to realize it was it was pretty futile the war reached new levels of resentment and vehemence as relations between 10:00 and 11:00 went into meltdown can you understand why it is that special advisors they're seen as part of the Black Arts and the dirty tricks department and smearing people including their own colleagues weddings I mean that did go on and I know it went on under under labor in when we were in in government not systematically but there were individuals who were motivated to do that the macho style of some prominent new labor spin doctors like Charlie Whelan and Alastair Campbell was taken to a new level by Damian McBride his proposed sex mere emails against top Tories made the thick of it seem more documentary than satire do not make this a disciplinary issue hear me soldier I found her please discussion right nobody arguing I am gonna go in there and I am going to be Miku off oh Christ Oh nobody upon yourselves I've got so much on as it is what did your Higgy Oh when I hit a wall and threw my face back and hit you in the face instead I think you broke apart no no no no that's just a sketch man how accurate a portrayal do you think the thick of it is well I think I think there there is a few I can remember who actually would model themselves on on Malcolm Tucker character who actually see that as the way you do things but that wouldn't be me my goal was to have good relationships with private office because they're that line of defense for your Minister against the wider civil service and the media and the world the first ever televised leaders debates dominated last year's general election facing Gordon Brown were two former spars David Cameron and Nick Clegg journalists watched the debate in the media center that became known as spin alley three men each of whom wants to be our next prime minister every promise you hear from Hamas nothing depends on one thing a strong economy and this the New Labour sped-up cracy followed the debate in a private room right now and we can have secure jobs we could have standard of living rising as the debate ended Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson Labour's campaign manager sought to spin the journalists against camera it's precisely that sort of arrogance that sense of writing Jews George Osborne Cameron's fellow expat was also spin you've got to talk to Joe Osbourne was briefing been brogan political editor of the conservative Daily Telegraph to say don't even love your stride she's nice but back in his Whitehall ministry on the eve of the general election Peter Mandelson the prototype political adviser who'd become Gordon Brown's highest-ranking Minister prepared to thank the civil servants who ran his private office is very very good news win or lose I could just stay obviously if we win if they don't get will be business as usual I just you know take decisions on forums dispense money like a bull bong don't lean I still stay for help remember housing I'm not able to go round the whole department thanking everyone individually but I can thank you because you were being so wonderful for me and you've just supported me and just giving me the time of my life the election saw the triumph of the spazz who now have the two highest offices in the land and another Spade graduate from private office was the new chancellor and four out of five of the candidates for the job of leader of the Opposition - Osborne Clegg and Cameron were also spats ed Miliband received 19.9 through four ed Miliband had beaten his older brother Edie had worked in Gordon Brown's private office while David had worked for Blair like Cameron the brothers had read PPE at Oxford has had fellow spared Ed Balls who became Shadow Chancellor Miliband I do say to him I do say to him there is increasing concern about the government's competence mr. speaker DISA Prime Minister think is just a problem with the foreign secretary whereas a wider problem in his government first of all he raises the issue of the foreign sector let me tell you I think we have an excellent project when when it comes to it there's only one person I can remember around here knifing a foreign secretary and I I think I'm looking at him over the past 50 years the arrival of the special advisers has dramatically altered the balance of power and what the new professional political class that cut its teeth in the private offices and was famously characterized as the people who live in the dark has grown to take over the reins of power in constitutional theory the head of government was first among equals but these days the Prime Minister of Britain his first amongst pads you

Channel: Mr Cox

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Id: w55A9o9AGiY

Length: 59min 9sec (3549 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2015