Tories split in EU advice ban row

Ruptures within the Conservative Party over the EU referendum continue as Tory back-benchers round on the ban that stops civil servants from helping Brexit Ministers.
Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock.Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock.
Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock.

Conservative MPs lined up to attack the decision that forbids civil servants from providing speech and briefing material to high-profile secretaries of state campaigning to leave the EU, such as Michael Gove and Chris Grayling.

Andrew Percy, Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole, described the move as a ‘stitch-up’ for the out campaign and also revealed Yorkshire Conservative association branches have been warned by the party’s North of England field director to be ‘neutral’ in the run-up to the referendum on June 23.

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Across the region, no Conservative branch is allowed to use its premises or funds to promote either the ‘in’ or ‘out’ campaign, according to a memo sent out yesterday.

Mr Percy told Cabinet Office Minister Matt Hancock that the decision to not allow grass-roots campaign offices to support Brexit was nonsensical when the civil service is supporting the Government in their campaign to remain in the EU.

He said it was leaving people “to conclude that there’s a stitch-up to leave us in the wasteful EU”.

Among the most outspoken during the hour-long grilling was long-standing Conservative MP Sir Gerald Howarth, MP for Aldershot, who described the move as a ‘constitutional outrage’ and said it would leave people thinking the Government ‘is intending on rigging the referendum’.

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He was proceeded by Brexit campaigner David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, who said there was no manifesto basis for the Cabinet Office’s decision to ban civil servant support on referendum issues.

However, Mr Hancock said the decision is anchored in the EU Referendum Act which requires the Government to back one side, and the Constitutional Affairs Act of 2010 states that the civil service must support the ‘government of the day’.

He said: “If Ministers have taken a personal decision to campaign in a personal capacity against the position of the Government, then it is inappropriate to ask civil servants to support that position which is not the position of the Government.”

Fisheries Minister Sir Edward Leigh, who is backing the out campaign, asked how he was supposed to work with his advisers since his department’s work is entirely wrapped up in EU law.

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He said: “Do I go home for four months? Do I get no advice from Ministers?”

Mr Hancock joked that he could not have four months off and all Government activity relating to the EU continues as usual - only referendum matters invoke the withholding of documents.

Today, the head of the civil service Jeremy Heywood is due to give evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on the controversial decision to prevent civil servants from using their departments’ resources to lend a hand to the out campaign.

Meanwhile the Government released a new report into the mechanics of leaving the EU, and warned that it could lead to a ‘decade’ of uncertainty.

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The farming community could be particularly adversely affected, it said, as well as financial services and the policing of terrorism.

The document entitled The Process for Withdrawing from the European Union, referenced lengthy trade deals with non-EU states to highlight the difficulties in existing outside the union.