Civil service undermined Brexit and Boris Johnson 'at every turn' claims senior Tory as he blasts Sue Gray

Civil service undermined Brexit and Boris Johnson 'at every turn' claims senior Tory as he blasts Sue Gray
GB News
Dan Falvey

By Dan Falvey


Published: 05/03/2023

- 10:14

Updated: 05/03/2023

- 11:15

Sir Jake Berry claimed he had seen first hand evidence of the civil service undermining the Conservative Government

Former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry told GB News he had personally witnessed the civil service trying to undermine the Government as he criticised senior civil servant Sue Gray for joining Sir Keir Starmer's team.

The Rossendale and Darwen MP said Labour's appointment of the woman who investigated lockdown parties in Downing Street during the pandemic was "just another brick in the wall" in undermining Britons' trust in the civil service.


He told the Camilla Tominey Show: "It's this appearance of bias, this sort of appearance that Boris Johnson may have been subject the the biggest stitch up since the Bayeux Tapestry."

Berry said the decision was a "mistake" by both Labour and Gray.

Camilla Tominey interviewing Sir Jake Berry

Sir Jake Berry criticised the appointment of Sue Gray

GB News

He continued: "In all my dealings with Sue Gray I've always found her completely fair and impartial.

"But I think it plays into this biggest idea Camilla that the British people voted for Brexit, and I was in Government and I saw first hand civil servants at every turn try to frustrate Brexit.

"The British people then voted for Boris Johnson to actually deliver the Brexit they had voted for a couple of year earlier, and then it feels like because of this appointment of Sue Gray we then saw the civil rice try to frustrate and remove Boris Johnson from office.

"So I cannot help what the civil drive does and how it may be perceived by the Great British public, that's for the great British public to decide.

"It's the civil service itself which is creating this perception. I think the appointment of Sue Gray unfortunately is just another brick in the wall."

He warned that the behaviour of the civil service in recent years risked Britons thinking of mandarins: "You actually don't work for us, you work for yourself, you don't work for our country, you don't believe in what we believe in."

Gray's report on Covid rule breaking in Government was published last May and concluded that senior leadership in Downing Street "must bear responsibility" for social gatherings which should not have been allowed to take place.

"More junior civil servants believed that their involvement was permitted given the attendance of senior leaders," she concluded.

"The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture."

On Friday Johnson told broadcasters that people may now look at the Gray inquiry in a “different light” following her appointment to Starmer's office.

He said: “If you told me at the time I commissioned Sue Gray to do the inquiry, if you told me all the stuff that I now know, I think I might have cross-examined her more closely about her independence.”

Starmer has refused to say when conversations with Gray began about a role in Labour.

Jake Berry  being interviewed outside Jake Berry criticised the conduct of the civil serviceGB News

However, he stressed this week that he was delighted “really strong professional, respected individuals” want to join Labour.

Under the civil service code, officials of Gray’s seniority must wait a minimum of three months before taking up outside employment.

Berry told GB News this morning that the hiring of Gray was proof Labour was not on the side of ordinary Britons.

He said: "The appointment of Sue Gray I think proves that Sir Keir Starmer is a man of the establishment, he's basically worked in the establishment his entire life - not least as he keeps telling us as the chief prosecutor for the UK.

"Any Government he heads is not going to work for the people of Lancashire, it's not going to work for your GB News viewers, it's an establishment government that wants to preserve the status quo, and I got into politics to change that, to fight for people in the north."

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