Sunday shows round-up: Amber Rudd defends civil service

Amber Rudd: ‘I have complete confidence’ in the civil service

The Home Secretary has defended the civil service after recent comments made by members of her party. Brexit minister Steve Baker and backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg – now the chair of the influential European Research Group – have both criticised the institution.

Baker apologised to the House of Commons on Friday for suggesting that there was significant internal pressure from civil servants to stay in the EU customs union, while Rees-Mogg accused officials who drew up a post-Brexit economic analysis of ‘fiddling the figures’. Rudd told Andrew Marr that the British civil service is the envy of the world:

AM: [Do] you have complete confidence in civil servants – particularly Treasury civil servants – in their impartiality, integrity and their professionalism?

AR: Yes I do. I have complete confidence in them. We are envied the world over for our high standards of our civil servants, and I would say now more than ever that we need to make sure that we attract the best into our civil service to take on what is an enormous challenge in terms of leaving the EU.