Civil service chief Mark Sedwill faces calls to QUIT

Civil service chief Mark Sedwill faces calls to QUIT his duties and focus on coordinating coronavirus response

  • Sir Mark Sedwill serves as Cabinet Secretary and UK’s national security adviser
  • Senior Tory Tobias Ellwood said Sir Mark should quit as head of the Civil Service
  • That would allow him to focus on NSA role coordinating coronavirus response 
  • Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

A senior Tory MP has called for Sir Mark Sedwill, the UK’s top civil servant, to quit so he can focus on coordinating the nation’s coronavirus response. 

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of the Defence Select Committee, said Sir Mark should stand down as Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service to concentrate on his role as national security adviser. 

It comes after Boris Johnson and Sir Mark were said to have had a ‘tense’ stand off last week over who is responsible for implementing the Government’s lockdown exit strategy. 

Sir Mark Sedwill, pictured in Downing Street in October last year, is facing calls to quit his role as head of the Civil Service so he can focus on his role as national security adviser and oversee the UK’s coronavirus response 

Tobias Ellwood, the Tory chairman of the Defence Select Committee, said ‘until a vaccine is procured the conventional school of decision-making will simply not work’ as he called for Sir Mark to step down

Some MPs believe Sir Mark is spread too thinly, especially given the current pressures associated with dealing with the deadly outbreak. 

But Mr Ellwood is the first senior MP to break cover and openly ask for him to stand down.

He said the coronavirus crisis is placing ‘untold demands on all governments well beyond the routine’ and that decision-making processes therefore needed to adapt.  

Mr Ellwood told The Times: ‘Government is being tested by persistent uncertainty. 

‘Traditional cabinet-led government works, is reliable, tried and tested, but it’s a peacetime construct, siloed and slow to reach decisions. 

‘The creation of a biosecurity centre is welcomed but this should be a full situation centre to manage the operational aspects of implementing government policy. 

‘It should be run by the national security adviser who should relinquish the two other portfolios he currently holds.

‘Until a vaccine is procured the conventional school of decision-making will simply not work.’ 

Mr Ellwood said coronavirus is ‘testing the bandwidth of our current decision-making structures’.  

But it is also ‘impacting on global security’ as some nations retreat from the world stage while others ‘leverage the fog of Covid-19 to pursue their own geopolitical agendas’. 

‘Rather than prompt international cooperation this outbreak has moved us a notch closer to another Cold War,’ he said. 

Mr Ellwood’s intervention came after it was claimed yesterday that Mr Johnson and Sir Mark had clashed after the PM used an address to the nation to set out his lockdown exit plan.

It was revealed last week that Sir Mark, pictured with Boris Johnson inside Number 10 on July 24 last year, had coronavirus at the same time as the PM

Citing two sources, The Sunday Times said Mr Johnson had listened during a meeting as details of the road map were being discussed before asking: ‘Who is in charge of implementing this delivery plan?’

One of the sources said that silence followed before the PM looked at Sir Mark and said: ‘Is it you?’

Sir Mark then reportedly replied: ‘No, I think it’s you, prime minister.’  

Sir Mark’s role in the Government’s handling of the crisis has faced intense scrutiny in recent days after it emerged he had coronavirus at approximately the same time as the Prime Minister. 

Downing Street only revealed his illness six weeks after the fact, sparking a furious secrecy row. 

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