Cabinet Chief: UK faces break-up

Sir Gus O’Donnell is Britain's most senior civil servant Photo: DAVID ROSE
Christopher Hope

By Christopher Hope, and James Kirkup - Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Gus O’Donnell asks whether the Union can survive increasing pressure for Scottish independence.

Sir Gus, who is the head of more than 440,000 civil servants in England, Scotland and Wales, says the future of the Union is one of several “enormous challenges” facing the political establishment in the coming years.

The admission from such a senior non-political figure that the break-up of Britain is now a real possibility is likely to push the issue up the political agenda.

“Over the next few years there will be enormous challenges, such as whether to keep our kingdom united,” he warns officials and politicians.

The remarks in today’s Daily Telegraph are Sir Gus’s final public comments before he steps down as Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service on Jan 1.

In the exclusive article, Sir Gus also warns that Britain faces major challenges as its economy falters and says that the Civil Service has to overcome its own “cultural inertia” to help lead Britain out of the economic downturn.

Some Conservative ministers have accused officials of hampering pro-growth policies and Sir Gus says: “It is not enough now for the civil service simply to respond to a dampened economic climate; it needs to become a central part of its recovery and growth.”

He suggests that MPs are too keen to make new laws to deal with problems, increasing the burden of red tape. Instead, he encourages ministers and civil servants to take more risks, so that officials can “learn from failure”. “We must be more creative and innovative in the way we solve problems without always resorting to the creation of new rules,” he says.

Sir Gus nominates as one of the proudest achievements of his 32-year career his role, while at the Treasury, in helping to keep Britain out of the euro, against the wishes of Tony Blair, who was prime minister at the time.

He says: “I am proud of the thorough, evidence-based analysis that was carried out under the last government, which resulted in the decision not to join the euro. Without that, the challenge would be substantially greater.”

Sir Gus’s comments about the Union highlight the fact that British voters and politicians are facing serious questions about the future of the UK as a single country.

Alex Salmond’s Scottish Nationalist Party dominates the Scottish parliament and has promised a referendum on independence before 2016.

When the nationalists won a resounding victory in the Scottish election in May, David Cameron promised to fight “with every fibre” to keep Scotland in the Union.

Ministers are now gearing up to tackle one of the long-standing anomalies raised by the creation of the Scottish parliament: the so-called West Lothian Question.

The question relates to the fact that MPs representing Scottish seats can vote at Westminster on issues such as health and education in England, while English MPs have no similar say in Scotland.

After repeated delays, the Government this week confirmed that a commission to examine the West Lothian Question will be set up in February and report in 2013. It could lead to the first change in the voting rights of MPs since the Act of Union in 1707.

In opposition, a Conservative review led by Kenneth Clarke, Justice Secretary, drew up plans to restrict Scottish MPs’ right to vote on laws that affect only England.

Defenders of the Union have struggled to agree on how to respond to Mr Salmond and his referendum plan.

Mr Salmond has suggested he could pose a three-option referendum, offering Scots the options of the status quo, outright independence or remaining in the UK but increasing the devolved powers of the Scottish parliament.

Mr Cameron has recently established a Cabinet sub-committee for senior ministers to consider the Government’s approach to a Scottish referendum.

It is understood that some ministers are supporting the third option, to give Holyrood more power. But others believe that handing Mr Salmond more power could ultimately lead to full independence and want to change the law to restrict the referendum to an “in/out” question. There is also a split among Unionist parties over who should call the referendum and when.

Some senior Conservatives want Mr Cameron to seize control of the agenda and call a Scottish referendum himself, allowing him to dictate the timing and terms of the debate. Labour says that could trigger a backlash from Scottish voters.

Whenever the vote comes, Unionists face a huge challenge against Mr Salmond’s well-funded and organised independence campaign.

Mr Salmond has already appointed Angus Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster group leader, as his independence campaign director and is on course to raise a £4  million fighting fund.

Colin and Chris Weir, the couple who won £161 million fortune playing the Euromillions lottery, have donated £1 million. Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s former national poet, left £918,000 in his will.