Simon Case’s mea culpa

It’s supposedly illegal to die in the House of Commons, but Simon Case gave it a good try this afternoon. The Cabinet Secretary endured a torrid time before the Public Administration Committee, being grilled on everything from Partygate and public standards to Carrie Johnson and civil service cuts. For 107 minutes, Britain’s top mandarin was metaphorically pummeled around the Jo Grimond room, looking at times as though he’d prefer the fate of Jeremy Thorpe’s Rinka.

It was difficult to pick a lowlight from this session, though Mr S shall give it a try. Having begun the meeting in his best Sir Humphrey mode – ‘the government of the day is not remotely afraid of controversial policies’ – it all quickly went south from there. Despite his best efforts to stonewall, Case made a number of concessions in rapid succession: up to ’30 per cent’ of his time is spent on issues of ‘ethics or propriety’, he considered resigning if he had received an Fixed Penalty Notice and that Whitehall inquiries into the PM should ‘be avoided wherever possible’.