Another senior civil servant quits Tory government
The government’s most senior lawyer has announced his decision to resign from the Civil Service allegedly over disagreements on the government’s new proposed Brexit-related bill.
Sir Jonathan Jones, who is permanent secretary to the Government Legal Department, is reportedly unhappy about the UK Internal Market Bill which the government is set to unveil tomorrow (September 09).
Jones, who leaves his post six months earlier than planned, has become the sixth senior civil servant to resign from the government this year alone.
According to the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, Jones is opposed to the new bill as he believes it breaches the government’s obligations under international law.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times (which first broke the story), has linked Jones’s departure to “suggestions that Boris Johnson is trying to row back on parts of last year’s Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland”.
Jones’s departure comes on the heels of Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis’s admission in the House of Commons today (September 08) that the proposed new bill will “break” international law.
Jones’ resignation is set to intensify the sense of crisis at the top of the Civil Service following a string of high-profile resignations.
The latest resignation comes on the eve of the newly-appointed head of the Civil Service, Simon Case’s first official day in his new role.
Case, who is a former royal aide, has been appointed in part to contain the crisis at the upper reaches of the Civil Service.
But the shadow attorney general, Lord Charlie Falconer, has ruled out a quick resolution to the crisis by claiming there is something “very rotten” about this government.
“This resignation [Jones’s] indicates that senior government lawyers think that the government is about to break the law”, Falconer added.
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