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Johnson continues his war on Whitehall with new nomination for powerful job
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openDemocracy has spoken to several charity workers, including a former chief executive, who all felt that they were ‘muzzled’ during the 2016 Brexit referendum, after receiving formal letters from the commission limiting their ability to speak out. Charities told The Lancet at the time that they felt “intimidation” from the commission.

Earlier that year Shawcross had dismissed allegations of bias, saying: “My personal opinions… are not relevant to the commission’s regulatory position.”

This year, 17 organisations, including Liberty, Amnesty International and the Runnymede Trust, threatened to boycott a review of the government’s anti-terrorism Prevent scheme, led by Shawcross, over concerns that his stint at the Charity Commission had seen a disproportionate focus on Muslim charities.

Where he’s coming from

Whatever the truth of the allegations of bias, there is little ambiguity about Shawcross’ political leanings. Like the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, who announced his nomination this week, he is a former director of the Henry Jackson Society, a neo-conservative think tank.

Since leaving the Charity Commission, he has also been a senior fellow of the conservative think-tank Policy Exchange.

In 2010 he wrote an article attacking “Labour’s immigration free-for-all”, suggesting there had been “a deliberate policy ‘to dilute Britishness’” and that “the only force of which Labour (like most E.U. ruling parties) seems to be in awe is Islamism”.

Hit list

By contrast, the outgoing Commissioner for Public Appointments is Peter Riddell, a respected former journalist and director of the Institute for Government known for his impartiality. Shawcross’s nomination is part of a wider pattern under this government, where independent-minded public servants have been replaced with less threatening figures.

In February 2020, a leaked ‘hit list’ identified three Whitehall department heads whom the government was seeking to remove. Two of the three – Philip Rutnam at the Home Office and Simon McDonald at the Foreign Office – have since resigned in reportedly acrimonious circumstances.

Other senior civil servants who quit rather than being retired or transferred were the Ministry of Justice’s Richard Heaton, in August 2020, and Jonathan Slater at the Department for Education, who was sacked by Boris Johnson the same month, in a row about A-Levels.

The prime minister’s ethics advisor, long-serving mandarin Alex Allen, was given little choice but to resign in November 2020 when Johnson ignored his advice that the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, be sacked over bullying allegations. The role remained unfilled for five months, and was eventually filled by the Queen’s former private secretary, Lord Geidt.

The biggest scalp of all, though, has been Mark Sedwill, who was replaced as Cabinet Secretary, head of the civil service and national security adviser last September, after rifts with the prime minister developed.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/william-shawcross-nomination-commissioner-public-appointments/
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