Theresa Could and Boris Johnson let the previous chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins and different civil servants hang around to dry after they grew to become “targets for political assaults”, an investigation into Whitehall’s function within the Brexit drama of the previous 4 years has discovered.

The impartial thinktank the Institute for Authorities (IfG) spent months speaking in confidence to Whitehall sources together with officers, ministers and particular advisers, to shine a lightweight on the behind-the-scenes expertise of a few of these concerned in one of the crucial controversial chapters in British political historical past.

Among the many moments highlighted by the examine was when Johnson put civil servants in an “immensely troublesome place” final October when he threatened to go away the EU with out a deal in breach of the Benn Act. “Below the civil service code 33, civil servants can not assist ministers break the legislation,” says its report, The Civil Service After Brexit.

On a extra prosaic degree it additionally reveals the troublesome decision-making and sheer exhaustion suffered by officers within the run-up to the primary Brexit deadline of 29 March final 12 months.

It tells of civil servants “huddling spherical” a single printout of a fancy and prolonged no-deal tariff schedule due to anxiousness about leaks, of workers having to go to darkish rooms to entry paperwork on safe computer systems, and the way a beneficiant provide of “firebreak” vacation after the second no-deal deadline on 12 April 2019 led to droves quitting their jobs unable to face a return to the Brexit bedlam.

However the examine additionally discovered that the duty of delivering Brexit “uncovered weaknesses within the civil service”, with each ministers and officers failing to be upfront concerning the “extreme political, and financial penalties no deal could have in Northern Ireland”.

Maddy Thimont Jack, senior researcher on the Institute for Authorities, stated: “Brexit demonstrated the perfect of the civil service. It managed to unpick a 47-year relationship with the EU in lower than three years, working underneath immense stress and to extraordinarily tight timelines. However the process continues to be not full and the tensions that Brexit uncovered – significantly, between ministers and officers – haven’t essentially gone away.”

Those that spoke to the thinktank closely criticised Could’s relationship with the civil service.

She didn’t provide any “important safety” to Robbins after he was openly attacked by hardline Brexiters, accused of “freelancing” and peddling a pro-EU line in Brussels.

“The prime minister was notably silent: she provided no assist to her key adviser, who was taking private {and professional} assaults on account of her coverage choices,” the report notes.

The previous head of HMRC Jon Thompson received two death threats after he stated Could’s “most facilitation” border proposals would value companies as much as £20bn a 12 months.

As a substitute of defending his place because the broadly revered chief civil servant on the HMRC, Could let her spokesman dismiss Thompson’s evaluation as “hypothesis”.

The report concludes that the close to breakdown of Could’s authorities and lack of readability left civil servants attempting to construct consensus by way of “tried and examined strategies of ambiguous wording and ingenious drafting” one thing acquainted to followers of the TV sitcom Sure Minister.

Johnson additionally used the weapon of silence when civil servants got here underneath assault, the IfG discovered. Most notably, he refused to defend the UK’s ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, when diplomatic emails about Donald Trump’s administration had been leaked.

Johnson was frontrunner for the Tory occasion management on the time.

“Extreme secrecy on Brexit” was one other criticism from inside Whitehall with the “over-classification” of paperwork as “secret” creating pointless issues for civil servants.

Officers needed to depend on super-secure Rosa terminals, put in place by the Nationwide Cyber Safety Centre, somewhat than their very own computer systems.

“Secrecy induced a number of pointless stress within the run-up to 29 March 2019, with far too few individuals accessing important paperwork. The considerations had been leaks – however all through this era it was primarily the political groups in departments, not officers engaged on Brexit readiness or negotiations, that had been answerable for leaking,” the report says.

Huge enhancements had been made underneath Michael Gove when he was appointed as head of exit operations (XO) and no-deal planning, the authors conclude. With a dashboard involving 350 milestones and secrecy ranges dropped, the brand new physique is claimed to have moved swiftly “extra like a programme administration board … than a cupboard committee”.

Finally the tempo was unsustainable and its focus was slim: to avert the speedy chaos of crashing out of the EU somewhat than the long term consequence for the nation.

However for its flaws, it proved a mannequin that was simply adjusted and used to impact within the coronavirus response, mixing officers and ministers on a cross-departmental foundation, the examine discovered.