To misquote William Shakespeare Some people are born stupid, some achieve stupidity, and some have stupidity thrust upon them. So it is with Steve Baker the junior Brexit minister, but in his case it is all three.
Yesterday morning this question was raised by the Rt Hon member for the 18th century;
Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
Will the Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker), confirm that he heard from Charles Grant of the Centre for European Research that officials in the Treasury have deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union are bad, and that officials intend to use the model to influence policy? If that is correct, does he share my view that it goes against the spirit of the Northcote-Trevelyan reforms that underpin our independent civil service?
And the idiot Baker duly obliged.
Mr Baker
I am sorry to say that my hon. Friend’s account is essentially correct. At the time I considered it implausible because my direct experience is that civil servants are extraordinarily careful to uphold the impartiality of the civil service. We must proceed with great caution in this matter, but I have heard him raise the issue. We need to be very careful not to take this forward in an inappropriate way, but he has reminded me of something that I heard. It would be quite extraordinary if it turned out that such a thing had happened.
Baker is now being accused of failing to defend his own department and the wider civil service (HERE) and not challenging the "half-baked" Rees-Mogg theory.
Now Charles Grant has absolutely denied saying it was a deliberate attempt by The Treasury civil servants to keep us in the customs union. He admits speaking to Baker at the Conservative party conference and discussing Treasury forecasts, all of which showed we will be poorer after Brexit. But Baker seems to have added the bit about the predictions being deliberately biased as a sort of conspiracy.
Now Prospect Magazine have uploaded the audio for everyone to hear. Decide for yourselves whether Baker was misleading.
He has now apparently been ordered to make a statement to the house apologising for his action.
