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QUENTIN LETTS: A kindly Mrs T? This was not what Mr Flynn wished to hear

Paul Flynn, Labour MP from Newport West accused Sir Jeremy Heywood of 'sycophancy'

Things got off to a batey start yesterday. They were still serving breakfast downstairs but in committee room 15 the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, was being told he had 'prostituted his high office'.

His accuser was Paul Flynn, the incorrigibly vivid Labour MP from Newport West.

He was outraged that Sir Jeremy this week co-wrote a newspaper article which reflected on Margaret Thatcher's 'kind and considerate' manner with staff at Downing Street.

The article mentioned that  Mrs T, when PM, would 'from her No 10 flat nourish her civil servants with home-cooked shepherd's pie whenever they were working late'.

Mrs Thatcher kindly? Mrs T as some sort of glorified auntie, clucking over her officials? This was not what Mr Flynn wished to hear.

The Left, which is now surely the nasty party, insists that Mrs T was an ogre.

Mr Flynn said that Sir Jeremy had ruptured 'civil service impartiality' by writing about Mrs Thatcher in a week when her record was being hotly debated by politicians.

Why, said Mr Flynn, she had sacked 171,000 civil servants in her time (weed's talk compared to the current purges - but Mr Cameron is in some respects more radical than she).

Mr Flynn accused Sir Jeremy of 'sycophancy'. 'Every word of the article was in praise of her,' he fumed. 'There was no question of an attempt at balance.'

He argued that any local government flunkey who gushed about a political figure would be disciplined. Why should the Cabinet Secretary be allowed to suck up to a dead (and still controversial) PM? Etc, etc.

All this was happening at 9.30 on the morning after Lady Thatcher's funeral and cremation. One hesitates to put it quite like this, but the ashes were possibly still warm.

Mrs T as some sort of glorified auntie, clucking over her officials? This was not what Mr Flynn wished to hear

At least three people in the room had actually been at the funeral. It perhaps says something for the tolerance of British political discourse that no one strode over to Mr Flynn and challenged him to a duel.

In fact, Bernard Jenkin (Con,  Harwich & N Essex), a firm Thatcherite, appeared to have an ounce of sympathy for Mr Flynn's argument about civil service impartiality.

Mr Flynn, who received quietly-spoken support from his party colleague Kelvin Hopkins (Luton N), repeatedly heckled Sir Jeremy, saying that he was 'outrageous'.

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Sir Jeremy looked a little surprised by all this but you do not become Cabinet Secretary without learning to bite your tongue.

Entre nous, elite civil servants increasingly take the view that backbench parliamentarians are blunt-minded blowhards.

Yet Sir Jeremy phrased his answers with an outwardly nonchalant politeness. With a shrug here and a murmur there, he let it be known he thought Mr Flynn was slightly off his rocker. Having put his questions and, as far as he was concerned, having received no satisfactory response, Mr Flynn left the room, quite the crotchet.

All this had happened at a meeting of the Public Administration Select Committee which is looking at 'The Future of the Civil Service'.

There is a lot of Whitehall reform talk at present.

Sitting beside Sir Jeremy was his sidekick (and commuting partner) Sir Bob Kerslake, official head of the civil service. Bungling, bumbling Bob! He speaks so quietly, he should have been a snooker commentator.

Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds NW) asked about rumours that ministers have complained to Sir Bob about Whitehall mandarins blocking ministerial decisions.

Sir Bob was not eager to give details. There had only been about five such occasions, he said. 'We've acted in  a robust way,' he mewed, wringing  his hands. Being told off by Sir Bob Kerslake must be like being savaged by a goldfish.

Mr Jenkin told him that he was 'not giving the impression of gripping the civil service and being dynamic'.

Bearded Bob gave a moony smile. You do slightly wonder what Mrs Thatcher would have made of him. Would she have cooked him shepherd's pie. Or would she have given him a whizz in her mincer?


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