SIR HUMPHREY RETURNS TO POWER

Sue Cameron spots an unnoticed

effect of the recent resignations

WHITEHALL is back. Sir Richard Wilson and his civil service knights are poised to reassert their grip on policy after only 20 months of the New Labour experiment. They are the real winners from the govern- ment's Christmas bloodbath.

This change in the balance of power has gone almost unnoticed amid the general furore. Yet already the Whitehall knights are back in the saddle at the three most powerful departments of government the Treasury, the Foreign Office and No. 10.

At the Treasury, Charlie Whelan is on his way out. Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Treasury's top official, is reclaiming the civil service influence that was so rudely usurped by Mr Whelan and a tiny coterie of outsiders when Labour came to power. A television documentary showed Mr Whelan's boorish treatment of officials. Now Whitehall is enjoying its revenge.

Over at the Foreign Office, diplomats relish the public humiliation of the For- eign Secretary, whose ex-wife has branded him a drunk and an adulterer. The Foreign Office was never happy with his posturing over ethics. Now his embarrassment may compensate for that suffered by Sir John Kerr, head of the Diplomatic Service and one of the ablest civil servants of his gen- eration. Insiders believe Sir John chose to make a fool of himself over the Sandline affair rather than expose Mr Cook, or lie.

Meanwhile, at No. 10, the government's command centre, Tony Blair will find him- self relying increasingly on the most pow- erful Whitehall knight of all: Sir Richard Wilson, the Cabinet Secretary. For Mr Blair is looking distinctly isolated. The enforced resignation of Peter Mandelson from the Cabinet means he has lost his closest and possibly ablest political confi- dant. Divisions in the Blair Cabinet have been exposed clearly. So too has Labour's preference for spin rather than substance. In such circumstances, where else can the Prime Minister turn for a new best friend except to the charming, gifted and utterly loyal Sir Richard?

Not that Mr Blair's reliance on Sir Richard will mark a radical departure from the status quo. Sir Richard had wielded significant backroom influence since he became Britain's top civil servant a year ago. He is a Blair man in the sense that he was appointed after Labour came to power. He and Tony Blair liked each other from the start. In the past months the shared demands of office have brought them closer still. Now Charlie Whelan's exit enables Sir Richard to consolidate his position.

Some claim the main beneficiary from the government resignations is Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's press sec- retary. He has even been described as the real Deputy Prime Minister. Undoubtedly his views carry great weight, and Mr Blair will consult him as to how new ideas will go down with the public. But Mr Camp- bell, however gifted, is not by training or inclination a policy man. Sir Richard is, to his fingertips. That is why he and his civil servants will now come back into their own.

Mr Blair's desperate plea last weekend to be judged on what he has done, not on scandal or trivia, underlined Labour's inadequacies on the policy front. Whether in health, education or social security, the Blairites have often been stronger on aims than on real achievements. They need Sir Richard.

So does this mean that the ascendancy of the mandarins is as strong now as it was in Harold Wilson's first government? On 13 June 1965, after only eight months in office, the then housing minister, Richard Crossm an, wrote in his diary, 'Here we are, drifting along with our momentum halted and the civil service taking over more every day.'

`Do you take T-totallers?' Seemingly, the cycle is being rerun — at least to an extent. Undoubtedly there are similarities between now and then. The dif- ference is that Sir Richard will work with the grain of Mr Blair's modernisation agen- da, not against it. There will be less rhetoric and more substance perhaps, and policies will sometimes be less ambitious and more workable. There will be a more harmonious match between New Labour slogans and old Whitehall standards.

It is the fall of Charlie Whelan that has set the seal on Whitehall's reinvigoration. Almost from the start, Whitehall was deter- mined that Charlie would have to go. Like Mr Campbell and Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair's chief of staff, Charlie Whelan was a party apparatchik, not an impartial civil servant. Unlike them, he was never given special dispensation by the Privy Council to take on a civil service post and give orders to officials.

Insiders say that Messrs Powell and Campbell have always been 'meticulous' about observing Whitehall proprieties. Mr Whelan has not. Yet it seemed that the Prime Minister himself could not control Mr Whelan. The Chancellor might have reined him in but did not wish to do so.

Mr Whelan's greatest crime — in civil service eyes — was that he disparaged Cab- inet ministers. No civil servant would do such a thing, though political advisers like Mr Whelan brief against Opposition politi- cians. But neutral Whitehall expects that senior ministers who want to knife their own colleagues will do the job themselves, not leave it to the hired help.

Charlie Whelan was unelected, unac- countable and unpredictable. He had to go because he represented a threat to the Whitehall scheme of things.

There has been speculation about what job he will do when he leaves. More impor- tant is the question of who will replace him at the Treasury. Whitehall will want to reclaim the post and subject its holder to a wider discipline than the whims of a bitter Chancellor. Should the Chancellor show any desire to appoint a Whelan clone, then Sir Andrew and Sir Richard will know what to do. The mere mention of Mr Whelan's plans to write his memoirs should be enough to make Mr Blair put his foot down.

The job could still go to an outsider, but No. 10 is expected to insist that candidates undergo the normal civil service assessment procedures, as did Sherree Dodd, the for- mer Mirror journalist appointed press sec- retary in the Northern Ireland Office.

And when Mr Whelan finally goes, Sir Richard, Sir John and Sir Andrew will be on hand to pass him his coat and hold the door open. Then they will go in, gather up the reins of government and discuss how best to get Labour's somewhat shambolic show back on the road.

The author is a broadcaster specialising in Whitehall.