Eurosceptic Conservatives have warned Whitehall has been "politically corrupted" after one senior civil servant admitted officials were in tears after the UK voted to leave the EU.
Brexiteers were left outraged after former Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Lord McDonald opened up about the personal views of those working in the Government department.
The 62-year-old admitted he had consoled top mandarins in 2016 by telling them he also voted to keep the UK in the Brussels bloc.
Conservatives have warned his intervention is further evidence that Boris Johnson had been forced to fight against the establishment when negotiating Brexit with Brussels.
Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant during a previous appearance on GB News
GB NewsSir Michael Fabricant told GB News: “When people talk about the ‘Blob’ hindering Government action to take advantage of Brexit, this revelation gives stark reality to how such initiatives are blocked at every turn.
“Who runs this country? The electorate or the civil service?”
Wellingborough MP Peter Bone claimed: "I am afraid it is what I thought, that the Foreign Office was pro-EU.
"It also explains why it took so long to leave after we had voted to do so in the referendum."
Meanwhile, former Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman also told this website: “I think it says everything about how Whitehall has become politically corrupted and is no longer fit for purpose. That and Sue Gray and multiple other examples.
“Lord McDonald celebrated the demise of Boris Johnson in an infamous tweet and sought to damn Boris’ Government. He has crashed the notion of an impartial civil service into the ground.”
Conservative MP Peter Bone in WhitehallPAHe added: “The civil service are nakedly anti-Brexit, being set on surrendering our great nation to the EU; especially McDonald’s Foreign Office.
“They have deliberately opposed and defied delivering Brexit benefits. It’s not their job to go against the overwhelming democratic mandate.”
However, a Tory Minister suggested most civil servants were assisting the Government's efforts and would not voice their own personal views about policy.
They told GB News: "I have never heard that sort of thing from anyone I work with and I'm not sure it reflects most civil servants."
Lord McDonald, who previously described Johnson as the worst Prime Minister he worked under, detailed the atmosphere in the Foreign Office during an interview with the BBC.
He said: “The main feeling in the Foreign Office building was of mourning. People were in tears. People were in shock.”
Lord McDonald added: “On this occasion, this solitary occasion I decided to tell my colleagues and therefore let ministers know that I voted to remain in the European Union.
A pedestrian walks past a sign on Whitehall, in Westminster, central London.
PA
“I felt that they would assume that in any case. So I decided to embrace it.”
The civil service code ensures mandarins must uphold the fundamental principle of impartiality and stressed officials must not express their own political preferences.
It states that civil servants must not allow their "personal political views to determine any advice you give or your actions" and should "serve the Government, whatever its political persuasion, to the best of your ability in a way which maintains political impartiality".
However, leading Brexiteers have long warned the civil service has undermined the Government’s attempts to forge a new future outside the EU.
Detractors have labelled the civil service the “Blob” and accused Remain-supporting mandarins of playing a pivotal role in Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch’s decision to scale back the repeal of all Brussels-derived legislation.
