THE sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng’s most senior Treasury official marks a “problematic” shift towards ministers only picking staff who agree with them, an ex-Civil Service head has warned.

Ex-Whitehall chief and independent crossbencher Lord Kerslake said the “disgraceful” dismissal of Sir Tom Scholar could create a “chilling effect” on civil servants to challenging decisions by ministers. 

The Chancellor’s sudden sacking of Sir Tom, who had worked in the Civil Service for three decades, on his first day in office last week, sparked a Whitehall backlash. 

The comments by Lord Kerslake are the latest in a growing chorus of anger at the decision, which is said to have been ordered by PM Liz Truss. 

He told the Guardian on Wednesday that new Cabinet ministers typically decide to continue working with permanent secretaries and only in rare circumstances would stop doing so after a period of time. 

“Even more than before, senior civil servants will be nervous about this and worry that robust advice is interpreted as political differences with their policies,” he said. 

“It marks a new level of the growing trend of blaming the civil servants and dismissing them, and essentially saying they want a senior civil servant who aligns with our personal views. 

“I think that is really problematic, I really do … I think there will be a chilling effect and the wider world will be less confident that decisions will be made on the basis of robust advice.”

The sacking has also been condemned by senior civil servants’ union FDA, which described the move as an “ideological purge of permanent secretaries.” 

However union PCS, which also represents civil servants, suggested there should be equal uproar over government plans to axe more than 90,000 Civil Service jobs, with Ms Truss vowing to wage “a war on Whitehall waste.” 

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The sacking of Tim Scholar has been widely condemned as a political attack on the impartiality of senior civil servants. 

“But the former chief secretary to the Treasury failed to demonstrate his objectivity when meekly accepting a government plan to axe 91,000 Civil Service jobs with no regard to the consequences to the delivery of public services or the devastation of redundancy to civil servants struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.  

“We call on the government to stop the job cuts because we need more, not less, civil servants to keep the country running.”