Cameron: We must not bash civil servants
The Conservatives have been guilty of “bashing bureaucrats” and characterising them as lazy and inefficient, David Cameron will admit today.
In a charm offensive designed to boost the image of his “modern, compassionate” Conservatism, Mr Cameron will call on politicians to acknowledge the hard work done by public servants – and take a dig at the home secretary for fobbing off his mistakes on his officials.
He will also call on the private sector to learn lessons from the public sector, saying the assumption that it must always be the other way around is “lazy”.
Today’s speech will be seen as the latest attempt by Mr Cameron to reinvent his party, and comes after the leader of FDA, a major public servants’ union, attacked ministers for heaping blame for government ineffectiveness on civil servants.
Home secretary John Reid recently warned the Home Office was “not fit for purpose”, and implied some officials may lose their jobs over the foreign prisoners and immigration rows.
But FDA general secretary Jonathan Baume warned such criticism “looks like an ill-disguised attempt by some politicians and commentators to make excuses, and shift responsibility for struggling policies from ministers to the staff who serve them”.
He added: “These tactics are especially cowardly, because civil servants are not allowed to fight back. But they have had enough of being unfairly maligned, and they are saying that the criticism is unfair, divisive and damaging to the work of every government department.”
In a well-trailed speech to the National Consumer Council, Mr Cameron will call for ministers to “have the decency to admit it’s their fault, not the people who work for them”, when something goes wrong.
“Instead of using public servants as scapegoats, we should acknowledge their successes,” he will insist – his comments clearly designed for Mr Reid.
He will admit that in its “legitimate desire” to cut government waste, the Conservatives may have risked giving the impression that public sector workers were burdens on the state, not professionals.
But Mr Cameron will insist: “We want to understand what lessons the public sector may have for the private sector instead of the automatic and lazy assumption that it is always the public sector that has to learn from the private sector.”
However, Home Office minister Liam Byrne hit back, insisting there was no question of the government “scapegoating” officials. Instead, he said there existed a “complete unity of purpose” with ministers to help improve the department.
“David Cameron needs to decide what he stands for and stop trying to be all things to all people. Once again the Tory position is openly contradictory,” he said.
“David Davis has gone round attacking immigration service managers as a ‘basket case’. Yet today we have David Cameron criticising politicians who attack public servants. Perhaps it would help if the left hand knew what the right hand was doing.
“Labour’s position is clear; we will ask difficult questions of government officials to ensure the quality of service to which the public are entitled, and work with civil servants to get things right. David Cameron’s latest chameleon-like behaviour will fool nobody.”
