Who are ‘the blob’?

Liz Truss calls them the ‘deep state’, Dominic Cummings ‘the blob’ and for Sue Gray they are simply former colleagues. But most of the public – and indeed, most of the political class – know very little about them at all.

Permanent secretaries and directors general, the two most senior rungs of the civil service, wield substantial power and influence. This is not shadowy or improper, but their job. When ministers make a decision, they usually do so on the basis of advice shaped by their department’s top officials. When civil servants have concerns about the propriety of a task, it is senior officials who guide them. And permanent secretaries are directly accountable to parliament for the money departments spend.

But who are these people? How did they rise to the top of the civil service? How do they affect how government works? At the Institute for Government, with Korn Ferry, a consultancy, we’ve been researching these questions.