Criticism of the Civil Service by Brexiteer politicians last week has re-ignited the traditional tension between ministers and mandarins. The new crop of ministers therefore should have been ordered by Number 10 to troop along to the Speaker's House at Parliament last week for an Institute for Government event to watch veteran ex-Cabinet ministers Jack Straw and Ken Clarke give their own thoughts on ministerial office.

The rumbustious Mr Clarke who was a reforming health secretary in the 1980s described the health department mandarins' brief as ‘keeping things calm' adding: ‘I had to find my own people to help with the reforms. My permanent secretary said he didn't have anyone spare even though he had 6,000 staff.' He described a minister's private office as ‘double agents' between the politician and Whitehall while ‘if you're health secretary you'll be the most hated man in England.'