James Cleverly has been accused of “pretending problems don’t exist” after seemingly making a veiled swipe against Tory leadership rival Kemi Badenoch.
Conservative leadership contenders have so far opted to steer clear of blue-on-blue attacks, with 1922 Committee chairman Bob Blackman introducing a yellow card system to punish infighting.
With many Tories still scarred by the aftermath of the Brexit years and subsequent back-stabbing, it took a while for GB News to detect any strong sense of disunity during the 2024 Conservative leadership race.
However, Cleverly sparked outrage from some Conservative colleagues after appearing to dismiss Tory leadership rivals who were critical of civil servants.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the Braintree MP said: “Bad officers blame their soldiers, bad ministers blame the civil service.
“The same Home Office that apparently refused to bring down net migration when I got there started to bring down net migration.
“And the same Foreign Office that was obsessed with the EU when I got there became less obsessed with the EU.”
GB News can now reveal the former Home Secretary’s decision to criticise those expressing concern about the civil service has not gone unnoticed in certain corners of the Conservative Party.
Many saw Cleverly’s comments as an attempt to distinguish himself from frontrunner Badenoch.
The former Business Secretary, who swatted away claims she “bullied” civil servants as “utterly false smears”, recently launched another attack against Whitehall mandarins.
Badenoch argued issues within the political system helped explain the Tory Party’s defeat on July 4, adding: “By design, our legislative, social and political frameworks prevented us from being truly conservative.”
Responding to Cleverly’s veiled swipe, a senior Tory source told GB News: “A lot of us agree with Kemi that the processes of bureaucratic government prevent ministers taking serious, bold action.
“If Cleverly was so successful in pivoting us away from the EU and bringing down migration, why did so many voters flock to Reform, why was his own majority in Braintree cut from 25,000 votes down to barely 3,000?
“Celebrating a bit of hardly-noticed tinkering around the edges as evidence of leadership is basically asking for another painful defeat in five years' time.”
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A Badenoch-backing Conservative source added: “Pretending problems don’t exist is unhelpful.
“I don’t recall meeting a minister in the last Government who didn’t express some frustrations with the civil service.
“From the outside it certainly looks like there are palpable issues, so why can’t we be honest about that?”
A former special adviser also told GB News: “It is absolutely non-negotiable that every Tory leadership contender presents a convincing plan for root and branch reform of the civil service.
“Marginal tightenings in immigration policy should not distract from the fact that Whitehall is failing to serve the British public on a huge range of issues, from cutting taxes, to deregulating the economy, and pursuing the freedoms provided by Brexit.”
Badenoch was at the heart of the Department for Business & Trade when she was forced to roll back on her plan to put thousands of EU-derived directives on a post-Brexit bonfire.
It has been claimed by those working in Government at the time that civil servants were among those frustrating efforts to make the most of the UK’s newfound Brexit freedoms.
Despite some firey responses from Tory sources, GB News understands Cleverly did not mention Badenoch by name while discussing the state of the civil service.
Cleverly opened his leadership pitch by urging colleagues against “self-indulgent infighting”, later using his love for Britpop to encourage Tory MPs to take inspiration from Oasis' reunion.
The former Home Secretary’s allies also believe the Braintree MP’s measures to curb migration will half numbers but conceded there was not enough time ahead of the general election to implement such a change.
Cleverly has repeatedly refused to apologise for his role in the UK’s ballooning border crisis.
He told Chopper’s Political Podcast: “When I was in charge of migration, the numbers headed in the right direction.”
Cleverly, who withdrew from the 2019 Tory leadership race to endorse Boris Johnson, added: “My record is we got those visa applications down, we got returns up, handed back 150 hotels to commercial use.
“When I was in charge of this, it started heading in the right direction. I am very, very proud of that.”
During his appearance on the Camilla Tominey Show yesterday, the former Home Secretary doubled-down in defending his record.
“I didn’t ‘try’ to do something about it, I actually did something about it,” Cleverly said.
Cleverly lauded the release of recent Home Office statistics which showed a sharp drop in health and social care visas issued after he oversaw stricter restrictions.
The data showed a 26 per cent drop in the year ending June 2024 compared to the previous year.
However, net migration still skyrocketed from just 184,000 in 2019 to 764,000 in 2022.
The figure dropped slightly to 685,000 the following the year.
Illegal immigration also proved particularly difficult, with the number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel standing at 15,697 during his stint in the Home Office.
However, Cleverly will deliver a major campaign speech later today by providing “Conservative solutions” to the problems facing the country, including remaking the argument for capitalism.
Badenoch’s speech will come just a few hours earlier, with the ex-Business Secretary expected to “focus on renewal”.
The North West Essex MP, who was last month accused of pursuing unnecessary “punch-ups” by critical Conservatives, can so far call on the public support of 11 MPs.
Shadow Commons Leader Chris Philp, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott and Shadow Science Secretary Andrew Griffith are among Badenoch’s most prominent supporters.
However, ex-Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick leads the pack with 14 endorsements.
Former Levelling-Up Minister Neil O’Brien hit the headlines by backing Jenrick after supporting Badenoch in 2022.
He said: “We need someone who starts from the centre ground, but has a credible record and plan on the issues that are fuelling the rise of Reform.”
Cleverly is languishing behind alongside ex-Home Secretary Priti Patel with just five public backers.
The 2024 Tory leadership race will enter its first major stage this week when MPs start holding ballots to eliminate two candidates before a "beauty parade" at the upcoming party conference in Birmingham.
MPs will then whittle down the contenders to two, before members decide who should succeed Sunak.
It is far too early to predict who will make it through to the final stage, with less than half of Tory MPs publicly supporting any one of the six candidates.
However, a recent opinion poll shed some light on how each of the leadership contenders could fare with the Tory Party’s 172,000 members.
The JL Partners poll, which included nearly 500 Conservative members, revealed there was a “statistical tie” between ex-Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, Badenoch and Jenrick in terms of net favourability.
A series of prospective match-ups suggested Tugendhat would thump Jenrick, Jenrick would beat Badenoch by a whisker but Badenoch would defeat Tugendhat by a three per cent margin.
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