A Reform UK government would expect to dismiss the top civil servant in every government department and replace them with people seen as more likely to implement the party’s priorities, the Guardian has learned. Senior Reform figures have concluded that the current crop of permanent secretaries, the lead civil servant in each department, are not up to the necessary standard. In the UK, existing rules allow ministers to fast-track outsiders into the civil service as “exceptional appointments” on two-year terms. “An ideological purge does not make for good government,” said Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, the union for senior civil servants. There is no real evidence that the civil service would get in the way.

Source: The Guardian March 14, 2026 19:30 UTC