David Davis was overheard explaining… “The corollary of the Big Society is the smaller state. If you talk about the small state, people think you’re Attila the Hun. I f you talk about the Big Society, people think you’re Mother Teresa.” In the House of Commons recently, Francis Maude was asked to list which of the hundreds of Whitehall quangos, agencies and non-departmental bodies he was “assessing on their suitability of purpose and cost-effectiveness”, or in other words, sizing up for the butcher’s block. Instead of providing a list, Mr Maude replied simply: “All of them.” That mordant response sent a chill through the quangocracy, because from the lowliest paper-shufflers in regional branch offices, to the knighted panjandrums in the Athenaeum Club on Pall Mall, Mr Maude and his threats are taken very seriously indeed. That is remarkable enough in itself, since the denizens of the permanent government machine are usually sanguine about talk of cuts: they have seen politicians and their promises come and go, often to little effect. More remarkable is that the man unnerving civil servants and colleagues alike is from outward appearances one of the losers from David Cameron’s deal with the Liberal Democrats. Along with Oliver Letwin and David Willetts, Mr Maude was a Shadow Cabinet member who didn’t make it as a full Cabinet member in the Coalition. But while Mr Letwin is happily engaged in “long-term policy development” (read: “wonkish daydreaming”) and Mr Willetts is overseeing universities under Vince Cable at the Business Department, Mr Maude is intent on becoming a major player. As Minister of the Cabinet Office, with an ambiguous catch-all department and title, he has developed significant influence over the entire Government – exerted mainly behind closed doors. Mr Maude’s position completes an almost Mandelsonian return from obscurity for the 57-year-old father of five. The son of a Tory Cabinet minister, Mr Maude entered the Commons in 1983 and seven years later, helped convince Margaret Thatcher her time was up. Made a junior minister by Sir John Major, he lost his seat in 1992, returning in 1997 just as the party lost power. In Tony Blair’s first term, he was shadow foreign secretary and shadow chancellor under William Hague. In 2001, he ran Michael Portillo’s failed leadership campaign, then retreated to the backbenches. There, in a call that positioned him as Mr Cameron’s John the Baptist, he told the Conservative Party it had to reform to “look and sound like modern Britain”. His views won him few friends, but in 2005, Michael Howard made him party chairman, months before Mr Cameron’s election. As chairman he told the party it had to change to break out of the electoral ghetto it found itself in at three successive general elections. His bluntness was not welcomed, but one who did agree was Mr Cameron. Three years ago, he moved to shadow the Cabinet Office, beginning work on an ambitious programme to prepare the Conservatives for government. The plan was for a single-party administration, but insiders say it – and its author – have adapted easily to Coalition. Perhaps too easily: some right-wing Tories suspect Mr Maude is happy with a power-sharing deal that drags the Government towards the political centre-ground. “I rarely deal with him directly, but I’m aware of his influence just about everywhere I operate, usually for the better,” says one Lib Dem minister. “He has fingers in a lot of pies.” A Tory colleague who has crossed swords with him offers a similar, if less charitable, view: “He’s very effective. Sometimes ruthlessly so.” Indeed, Mr Maude does not shy away from a fight, whoever the opponent. As part of his cost-control agenda, any new government advertising campaign needs Mr Maude’s approval. Colleagues who have asked his permission include some of the Coalition’s most senior figures; they have been sent away empty handed. When John Yates, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief, warned that budget cuts would weaken defences against extremists, Mr Maude quickly took to the airwaves to chastise him. Instead of “alarming the public”, public servants would be better exploring how to do their work more cheaply and efficiently, he said. It was Mr Maude who drafted in business leaders as the non-executive chairmen of Whitehall departments’ management boards. Led by Lord Browne, the former BP chief, the chairmen are there to improve “performance and delivery”. In a significant change little-noticed outside Whitehall, Mr Maude has rewritten their operating “protocol”, giving boards the power “as a last resort” to trigger the removal of the permanent secretary. Mr Maude insists there is no “hit list” of permanent secretaries, but merely by raising the prospect of sackings – unprecedented in Whitehall – he has sent another frisson of anxiety through the mandarin class. Another of the dusty-sounding panels where Mr Maude sits is the Public Expenditure Committee (PEX). With only five members, it is the smallest Cabinet committee. Yet it is potentially the most important. This “star chamber” will finally decide what each Cabinet minister will cut from his or her budget. Conservatives are keen for Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to be the public face of the cuts, even as they privately whisper that real power lies elsewhere. A similar situation exists at the Efficiency and Reform Group, the 700-strong Whitehall battalion Mr Maude has assembled to oversee all government procurement, information technology and employment. Nominally, Mr Maude and Mr Alexander are the joint leaders of the group. But with Mr Alexander buried by paperwork in the Treasury, some leaders are more equal than others. As Mr Maude recently told a meeting of civil servants, academics and business leaders: “I am the executive chairman.” He was referring to his own civil service unit. Some in Whitehall are wondering if that is the role Mr Maude sees himself playing for the entire Government.
Is Francis Maude the Tories' Peter Mandelson?
Francis Maude will have a huge
influence on the shape of the budget cuts,
says James Kirkup
Saturday, 24 July 2010
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