Simon Case would be mad not to be considering his future

good morning Another change in the civil service? Simon Case is reportedly considering his future as Britain’s most senior civil servant. A few thoughts on our scoop on today’s notes.

Case closed?

The news that Sue Gray is to join Keir Starmer’s team broke in the midst of a Conservative party day. The news spread through the assembled MPs “like wildfire” in the words of one participant, with MPs looking at it on their phones and telling close friends.

This makes parliament for several reasons. At first, some people had a direct relationship with Sue Gray as a cabinet office worker and “leaked” secrets, and they were worried that she would take the secrets.

The second, as I mentioned on Friday, is that for some of Boris Johnson’s allies, it provides an opportunity to muddy the waters around Johnson, and the importance of the party’s report. (For the real story from the Gray report, Rob Hutton’s piece for the Critic is a must-read). But it helped them to throw enough mud and confusion that could lead to the real reason for Johnson’s departure and – they hope – make it easier for him to return as prime minister.

The third is that for others, they see respected civil servants jump to the opposition, and they conclude that Gray, like many in Westminster, has eliminated the Conservative Party’s chances of staying in office after the next election. Isaac Levido, the party’s chief strategist, has spent much of his time away from presenting data showing that the Labor leadership is soft and the Conservatives have a path to winning the next election.

That senior civil servants think their own prospects are better by leaving civil servants for the leadership of the opposition office appears, rightly or wrongly, as proof of Levido’s belief.

I don’t think that is quite true, but nevertheless, quite MP believes it is true. It is also another issue for Simon Case, who was appointed cabinet secretary in September 2020. The dispute over whether Gray acted properly in announcing his meeting with Keir Starmer and his interest in the job may return.

That’s the background to our scoop from Chris Cook, George Parker and Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe: that Case is considering an early exit from the role.

The case will be mad not to consider his future. He was very lucky to survive the leadership transition from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss. What saved him was the fact that Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng saw Tom Scholar, the former permanent secretary of the Treasury, as a more significant roadblock. The couple thought they couldn’t get rid of both of them so quickly without causing a lot of trouble.

Now Case faces challenges from two fronts. On the one hand, there are lingering questions about Johnson’s Downing Street and cabinet secretary’s knowledge of internal affairs, not least Johnson’s personal financial relationship with the BBC chairman, Richard Sharp. (Sharp said he put Sam Blyth, a businessman who had approached him with the intention of helping Johnson, in touch with Case.)

On the other hand, the cabinet secretary was quoted extensively in the Telegraph’s “Lockdown File”: leaked WhatsApp messages received and sent by Matt Hancock at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. He at least appears to be the same person as Hancock.

Basically everyone in the Conservative party knows that there are three main cabinet figures in the debate on the lock: Matt Hancock (pro), Michael Gove (pro) and Rishi Sunak (anti). But what is really new, in terms of the internal rhythm of the Tory party, is that Case describes some of the opposition to the Covid-19 ban as being driven by “pure Conservative ideology”, and Johnson’s “national distrust”.

It left Case in a difficult position: he raised concerns among those who saw him as Johnson’s last retainer, a pliant and ineffective Cabinet secretary who should not have outdone the prime minister who appointed him. But he also faced criticism from key skeptics on the Tory right.

Will he leave? I don’t know. But given the power he faces in the Conservative party, he will be furious if he doesn’t think about leaving on his own terms.

No shame in self-promotion

My column this week is World Book Day, outfits and tasks for parents.

Now try this

Morning — Georgina here: I have read it Trees by Percival Everett, a fast-paced satire of US racism that jackknifes from playful comedy to solemn horror, as it investigates a pattern of murders beginning in Money, Mississippi.

Also excellent US satire: Fair Gemstone, a television series about the oddball family of televangelists in charge of a corrupt megachurch. John Goodman gives a genius performance as the world-renowned patriarch, but definitely human. My partner and I worked (and laughed) through season two.

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