0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains some strong language
0:00:06 > 0:00:07This is the secret world of Whitehall.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10Decisions taken here behind closed doors affect all our daily lives.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13I'm telling the inside story of what has gone on over the years
0:00:13 > 0:00:17in the great institutions at the very heart of government.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21Tonight - how the hidden network of private offices operates.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Every government minister has a private office
0:00:24 > 0:00:26run by a small team of high-flying civil servants.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Their job is to manage the minister's professional life,
0:00:30 > 0:00:32and to protect, guide and inform.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35They told me, we have one allegiance. You.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38So, we fight your battles for you.
0:00:38 > 0:00:39We guard your back.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42What many people don't realise is just how intimate
0:00:42 > 0:00:46the relationship between the private office and the minister is.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51That intense loyalty to whoever is there, has to be seen to be believed.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55But also working with the private office are shadowy figures
0:00:55 > 0:00:58sometimes dubbed the people who live in the dark.
0:00:58 > 0:01:04They're the special advisers and unlike the neutral civil servants they're party political.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06And there have been many bloody power struggles waged
0:01:06 > 0:01:10within this most influential of Whitehall's secret networks.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30A job in the private office can be the route to the top
0:01:30 > 0:01:35of the civil service or politics if you're young and ambitious.
0:01:35 > 0:01:3920 years ago the Chancellor Norman Lamont's special adviser was one David Cameron,
0:01:39 > 0:01:41who was with him on Black Wednesday.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47Today has been an extremely difficult and turbulent day.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Lamont had to resign as Chancellor after Black Wednesday,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53but David Cameron moved on to another top private office
0:01:53 > 0:01:57as special adviser to the Home Secretary, Michael Howard.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59There, his task was to advise Howard
0:01:59 > 0:02:03on political pitfalls and image presentation.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Also doing the same thing as a special adviser in another ministry
0:02:06 > 0:02:10and then in Number 10, was the young George Osborne.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14He'd sometimes work hand in glove with Cameron.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16And do you think you've got a killer blow?
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Well, we certainly hope so. We're going to go and see.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24When New Labour came to power there were many more special advisers,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28- known in Whitehall as Spads. - This is the study.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Ed Balls was chief Spad to the new Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Another Spad learning his trade in the Chancellor's private office
0:02:35 > 0:02:38was the youthfully bespectacled Ed Miliband.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43'And a new class of person has emerged.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:47They're usually young graduates, often with no experience outside
0:02:47 > 0:02:52politics, who have come straight from university.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57Intellectually clever, enthusiastic, but I think that...
0:02:57 > 0:03:00I don't think it's added to politics.
0:03:02 > 0:03:0630 years ago, a TV satire showed how the top civil servant in the private
0:03:06 > 0:03:10office reacted to the intrusion of a political adviser.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12- Bernard Woolley, Principal Private Secretary.- How do you do?
0:03:12 > 0:03:14- Mr Lloyd-Prichard, Assistant. - Minister.
0:03:14 > 0:03:21- This is my political adviser. - Yes, of course. Mr Weasel.- Weisel.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Yes, Minister was depicting with complete historical accuracy how
0:03:30 > 0:03:36the real private office civil servants sought to marginalise the Spads.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39- Where are we all going to? - Well, you're going to your office, Minister.- But what about Frank?
0:03:43 > 0:03:46He's being taking care of, Minister.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49- Wait here, sir. - But this is the waiting room.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52- Precisely, sir. - But I'm Jim Hacker's special adviser.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54The Minister now has a whole department to advise him, sir.
0:03:54 > 0:03:55Look, he needs me!
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Of course he does, but until the minister sends for you, would you be so good as to wait?
0:04:02 > 0:04:07Although special advisers are now an accepted part of the Whitehall scene,
0:04:07 > 0:04:13it's the civil servants who always have been and remain the beating heart of the private office network.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15When Alan Johnson became Home Secretary two years ago,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18he was taken to be introduced to the young civil servants
0:04:18 > 0:04:21who made up his private office.
0:04:21 > 0:04:26- Go on, Richard, do the honours. - This is Natasha who does security and counter terrorism.
0:04:26 > 0:04:27Charlotte, hello.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35Gareth, how are you?
0:04:35 > 0:04:38- And Jenny.- Nice to meet you.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41I think it was summed up by my very first private secretary.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46I said, I don't know where to start. What...do you do?
0:04:46 > 0:04:49He said I run your private office and the purpose of your private office
0:04:49 > 0:04:53is to be your corridor into the rest of government.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56You've got to understand, there are lots of civil servants
0:04:56 > 0:04:58that will come in to see you whose allegiance will be elsewhere,
0:04:58 > 0:05:04to their permanent secretary, to the Department, to Number 10.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07He said, we've one allegiance - you.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12So, we fight your battles for you, we guard your back,
0:05:12 > 0:05:17we convey what you want to the rest of the department and to the rest of Whitehall.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20It was five minutes, but it summed it up.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24What sort of civil servants get chosen to work in the private office?
0:05:24 > 0:05:29Bright people, high-fliers, people interested in politics and ministers
0:05:29 > 0:05:32and the private office becomes the golden ladder as it were,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34to the top, and if you look at some of the people that have
0:05:34 > 0:05:37become Permanent Secretaries and indeed Cabinet Secretaries, many of them
0:05:37 > 0:05:41have been Private Secretaries and principal private secretaries on the way up that ladder.
0:05:41 > 0:05:48Robin Butler was to become top mandarin after working long hours for three Prime Ministers
0:05:48 > 0:05:50in the Number 10 private office.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54'I first went in to Number 10 in 1972.'
0:05:54 > 0:05:55When I left, I found that
0:05:55 > 0:06:00I'd never seen my children in their school clothes.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02Because I left before they were dressed in the morning
0:06:02 > 0:06:05and I never got home before they were asleep in bed in the evening.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14In the ministries across Whitehall, the private office normally has pride of place in the building.
0:06:14 > 0:06:15'Doors opening.'
0:06:15 > 0:06:18There's a team of people out there, sitting at desks,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20who are my private office.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24'They're the people that work to you personally, and they really plug me
0:06:24 > 0:06:29'into the rest of the system, and they handle absolutely all of the day-to-day activity.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32'They also arrange my diary, moment by moment, day-by-day,
0:06:32 > 0:06:37'and it goes beyond that. Because they get to know what you really want to do,
0:06:37 > 0:06:44what your priorities are, get to know what the problems are out there, and help you do the job,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47which is your job, as smoothly as they possibly can.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51The private office is absolutely vital to a minister.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54They're the eyes and ears within the department, the two-way conduit,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57the gatekeeper to that Minister.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01They're the first source of immediate policy advice or communication advice
0:07:01 > 0:07:04before they then get the right officials in to advise.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08The other great thing about the private office is,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10it's the shock absorber of the system.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Rather than a secretary of state for X going around to biff secretary of state for Y,
0:07:14 > 0:07:19because of some slight in the Cabinet Room, or some minute that's come through
0:07:19 > 0:07:22which is really designed to irritate, or subvert,
0:07:22 > 0:07:27the private office network has a chat amongst itself to try and soothe things.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32The private office goes back to the very first Prime Minister,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Robert Walpole in the eighteenth century.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38His private secretary was the son of the earl of Dartmouth.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Over the following two centuries, as ministries became more powerful
0:07:42 > 0:07:46and government more involved in raising and spending public money,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49the private office network developed across Whitehall.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55It was given a huge boost by Lloyd George when he became Prime Minister
0:07:55 > 0:07:58in the middle of the first world war.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02He decided on a total reorganisation of central government...
0:08:02 > 0:08:07a powerful new Number 10 private office was to be the command and control centre of Whitehall.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12And for the first time a record would be make of cabinet decisions.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17The national shorthand champion became Lloyd George's Private Secretary.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22'I was ushered into the Cabinet Room,
0:08:22 > 0:08:27'and there, I sat with the Cabinet Ministers around me, and I took shorthand notes.'
0:08:27 > 0:08:32It was the first time that any shorthand writer had ever
0:08:32 > 0:08:37been in that Cabinet Room to take a Cabinet discussion.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42And then, I typed it out on my typewriter.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Starting with Sylvester's typewriter, Lloyd George made
0:08:45 > 0:08:50Number 10 the prototype for a private office in every Whitehall ministry.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54He'd recruited so many new staff to his private office
0:08:54 > 0:08:57that they'd be housed in temporary huts in the Number 10 garden
0:08:57 > 0:09:02that became known as Lloyd George's garden suburb.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14Over the years, the power of the private offices
0:09:14 > 0:09:16has grown in every ministry.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19They provide an unrivalled confidential network
0:09:19 > 0:09:23for the exchange of inside information and Whitehall gossip.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27And a job in the private office is the aim for every civil service high flyer in Whitehall
0:09:27 > 0:09:30that has traditionally been a hierarchical place.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36REPORTER: 'The pecking order in Whitehall is still very important.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40'The head of the department gets the big desk, a big chair, a thick carpet
0:09:40 > 0:09:42'and a very high-class secretary.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49'Note also that he has an individual coat stand and an old master on the wall.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54'His number two, however, gets a rather more functional map,
0:09:54 > 0:10:00'a smaller table and, as you will note behind his head, a mere peg on the wall for his coat.
0:10:00 > 0:10:06'But he has, at least, an individual if rather austere light, not just a supermarket strip light
0:10:06 > 0:10:10'like these two poor chaps who even have to share a room.
0:10:10 > 0:10:16'But I bet they both took double firsts and will both end up as ambassadors.'
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Every ambitious young civil servant feels the pull of the private office.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Private office, I think this is probably one of the most interesting
0:10:24 > 0:10:27aspects of a civil servant's career.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31It means really acting as the link between the minister on the one hand
0:10:31 > 0:10:33and literally everybody else on the other.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38Members of parliament, other ministers. Members of the public.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Local authorities, pressure groups, the lot.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45- A sort of protector of the minister. - Yes, not always an appreciated protector,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47but nevertheless, a protector.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It meant, of course, a constant runaround,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54but I was allowed half a day off to go and get married.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56And strictly on the works side,
0:10:56 > 0:11:01if you enjoy politics and seeing how they work and how the whole machine
0:11:01 > 0:11:06of government works, as I do, then I think you'll find it fascinating.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08What they require, is experience.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Because they're all being identified as young, high-flying civil servants,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16expected to go a long way in their civil service careers and they seek
0:11:16 > 0:11:20having a tremendous close-up view of how government works.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27Wherever ministers go, they like to be in constant touch with their private office.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Eric Varley, a Labour cabinet minister in the mid 70s,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33would communicate using state of the art technology.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Alison, I wonder if all of the briefing is complete for Cabinet this morning?
0:11:37 > 0:11:41I wonder if I could have a meeting with officials before that, over?
0:11:41 > 0:11:46There's a possibility there might be a PMQ, which we'll keep in touch
0:11:46 > 0:11:48with parliamentary branch about.
0:11:48 > 0:11:54But I think also, the Prime Minister has questions this afternoon and he may get asked about it.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59The private office includes the diary secretary, a number of policy specialists
0:11:59 > 0:12:01and it's headed by the principal private secretary
0:12:01 > 0:12:05who's the main point of contact for the minister.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10I'm probably closer to him than any other civil servant in the department.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13I see everything he does, and I attend all his meetings.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16I try to see things through his eyes.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21I rather think that the role of the private office, so far as the civil
0:12:21 > 0:12:27service is concerned, is to wrap the secretary of state
0:12:27 > 0:12:32or the minister in cotton wool, keep tabs on him,
0:12:32 > 0:12:37to make sure that he's certainly informed, but also,
0:12:37 > 0:12:43to perhaps insulate him from a degree of reality from the outside world.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48But the private office's precise method of insulation can vary
0:12:48 > 0:12:50according to the minister's status,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54as one ambitious politician discovered in 1970.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58I arrived in this room, a very large room,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02completely empty of all paperwork.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04And I assumed somebody would tell me sooner or later
0:13:04 > 0:13:07what I was supposed to do. No-one did. And I sat there.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11They brought the coffee, and it was not for half-an-hour or so,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13and I read the papers - there were a lot of papers.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Every national newspaper was available in my office for me to read.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19It's only about an hour-and-a-half later, that I really came to grips
0:13:19 > 0:13:21with the problem that I had to be a self-starter.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24I had to make it clear what I wanted to do,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26and the way I saw my job evolving.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29There was no induction course, no training, no guidelines.
0:13:29 > 0:13:35In many ways, that's one of the most critical moments of a minister's career, whether he ever survives
0:13:35 > 0:13:40that moment, when if he doesn't emerge and take a command of the situation,
0:13:40 > 0:13:44he'll simply become the victim of the mountain of paperwork that will flow across his desk.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48Basically, you were a bag-carrier, you were expected to attend minutes,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52meetings with your secretary of state and to listen,
0:13:52 > 0:13:58perhaps be asked for your opinion, but you had no real power and responsibility.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01You had a private office which reflected that,
0:14:01 > 0:14:08your private secretary was being trained as a civil servant in the experience of ministerial life.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13Nearly 40 years on, Gordon Brown made the businessman Digby Jones a minister.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17The Whitehall outsider was surprised by his private office.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22I very quickly put a piece of paper on my desk and I wrote
0:14:22 > 0:14:28on it as best I could, to put a word around the sound...
0:14:28 > 0:14:30HE INHALES
0:14:30 > 0:14:36So, there were lots of letters and exclamation marks, and I can remember
0:14:36 > 0:14:39my private secretary came in and said, what's that, Minister?
0:14:39 > 0:14:43I said, that's the most common sound I hear in this office.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48And it's about usually followed by the words, "Very brave, Minister."
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Or, "I wouldn't do that, Minister."
0:14:51 > 0:14:52And it's this...
0:14:52 > 0:14:54HE INHALES
0:14:54 > 0:14:59..because they're brought up to be risk-averse.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04Their job in the private office is to serve their nation
0:15:04 > 0:15:08through the Minister, to keep the Minister out of trouble
0:15:09 > 0:15:14and to keep the minister delivering on agreed policy. That's their job.
0:15:16 > 0:15:22But another key job of the private office is to scan the horizon and spot unexpected troubles
0:15:22 > 0:15:26especially when a minister is sent to a newly created department.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32'My principal private secretary rang me up and said,'
0:15:32 > 0:15:35"You'll be getting your first day briefing and all of that."
0:15:35 > 0:15:39He said, "Has the Prime Minister mentioned to you about changing the name of the Department?"
0:15:39 > 0:15:42I said, yes, he did say something about productivity and science.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45He said, "Could I just go through with you what the Department is due to be called?
0:15:45 > 0:15:48"It's due to be called the Department of Productivity, Energy -
0:15:48 > 0:15:51"which is usually described as EN,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54"Industry and Science."
0:15:54 > 0:15:58He said, "You'll be the Secretary of State for PENIS."
0:15:58 > 0:16:01I said, oh, gosh, that doesn't sound very good.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03So, I said, what can we do about this?
0:16:03 > 0:16:08'They had unscrewed Department of Trade and Industry signs from outside Victoria Street.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11'Fortunately, they hadn't put the new name up yet.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15'So I kind of stopped any further work on it before I went to see the Prime Minister.'
0:16:15 > 0:16:20And I said, do you mind if I raise something with you, Prime Minister? The name of the Department?
0:16:20 > 0:16:23He said, what's the problem? So I explained it to him.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27I said, the Department for PENIS, I'd be the secretary of state for PENIS.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29He said, well, let's change it back.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34And all these people sat around, he says, whose idea was this?
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Talk about, success has many parents and failure is an orphan.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43And no-one said anything. He said, well, let's just change it back to the Department of Trade and Industry.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47So I came out of that meeting with my first great victory.
0:16:47 > 0:16:53But, really, because I was alerted to it very early on by my principal private secretary.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58When David Blunkett was made Education Secretary in 1997,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01he was the first blind Cabinet Minister.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04And his Principal Private Secretary Alun Evans had worked out in advance
0:17:04 > 0:17:08how to make Blunkett's ministerial life easier.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12We did have a bit of a glitch, because I'd ordered through
0:17:12 > 0:17:16my officials, a state-of-the-art Braille machine which converted
0:17:16 > 0:17:21word documents into Braille and David Blunkett didn't often use Braille,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24but he did for formal set pieces like statements to Parliament
0:17:24 > 0:17:26or briefings to the Prime Minister.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31And the first briefing to the Prime Minister we duly produced in Braille in the first week,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35had we handed it to him with about five minutes to go before the meeting, as often happens
0:17:35 > 0:17:38last-minute, and he grabbed it and went into Number 10.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42What we hadn't realised was that the Braille machine was made in Sweden
0:17:42 > 0:17:47and had a switch on the back of the machine which switched from English to Swedish Braille,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52and we'd handed him a word-perfect copy of Swedish Braille briefing on education policy.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55He winged it and did it very well.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00It must have been something of a surprise for him as he was trying to...
0:18:00 > 0:18:04Well, it was, he found a bit of hurdy-gurdy smorgasbord on the text in front of him.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14Peter Mandelson had a succession of private offices across Whitehall,
0:18:14 > 0:18:19before ending up as first Secretary of State at the department of business innovation and skills.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25The private office and the private secretaries play
0:18:25 > 0:18:30an absolutely crucial, seminal, professional,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36I mean, really brilliant role in this...
0:18:37 > 0:18:43It's a joy to work with them and to see that sort of dedication
0:18:43 > 0:18:47and working around the clock, and that intense loyalty to
0:18:47 > 0:18:50whoever is there, you know, it's to be seen to be believed.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54In his private office, Mandelson goes through his diary.
0:18:54 > 0:18:55Marie.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59- I'm going to Nottingham tomorrow, yes.- Yes.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02There's a reception tomorrow night.
0:19:08 > 0:19:09Oh. How annoying.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21Is there anything you wanted to do on Friday, specifically?
0:19:21 > 0:19:23I want it to be my time.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26My thinking time. My thinking time.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28My world.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32The key coupling in the private office was described by
0:19:32 > 0:19:36Benjamin Disraeli, the Victorian Chancellor and Prime Minister, a century and a half ago.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40He said, "Relations between the Minister and his private secretary
0:19:40 > 0:19:44"are, or should be, among the finest that can subsist between
0:19:44 > 0:19:48"two individuals, except for the married state".
0:19:48 > 0:19:50What many people don't realise is just how intimate
0:19:50 > 0:19:54the relationship between the Private Office and their minister is.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56You do form a very close relationship
0:19:56 > 0:19:58with your private secretary.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03The foreign secretary Douglas Hurd and his principal private secretary John Sawers
0:20:03 > 0:20:06would go for early morning swims at international conferences.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10Sawers is now head of MI6.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13I used to get my private secretary into a sort of discipline,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15getting up early for a swim.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17Sometimes it was extremely cold,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19but it sharpens up your body and mind.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29The private office is very beguiling.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32It is a very hot-house environment.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35You live on very close terms
0:20:35 > 0:20:37with your minister, your Secretary Of State
0:20:37 > 0:20:40and that's the most important person in your life.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44And some civil servants, when they enter into private office,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47can become too close to the minister.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51A sensational example of a Private Office relationship too close
0:20:51 > 0:20:53happened in the '60s.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57John Vassall was a private secretary to the Navy Minister.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59He was revealed as a KGB spy
0:20:59 > 0:21:03who'd been entrapped by the Soviet Communists in a homosexual sting.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07His minister at the Admiralty was Tam Galbraith,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09an aristocratic Tory.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14The revelation that the minister had sent his private secretary letters
0:21:14 > 0:21:18beginning, "My Dear Vassall..." caused a scandal.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Amid lurid rumours, Galbraith resigned
0:21:21 > 0:21:24saying, "My long accustomed manner of dealing with officials
0:21:24 > 0:21:26"has become an embarrassment."
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Vassall was jailed for ten years for spying for the Russians,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35while Galbraith was exonerated by an official enquiry.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Alan Clark was one of Mrs Thatcher's ministers.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50A renowned womaniser,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Clark revealed in his diaries, which were later dramatised,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55how he lusted after
0:21:55 > 0:21:58his principal private secretary.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02"Jenny Easterbrook - sexuality tightly-controlled.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05"She makes plain her feelings on several accounts
0:22:05 > 0:22:08"without expressing them."
0:22:08 > 0:22:09Do you take dictation?
0:22:09 > 0:22:12- No, minister.- Shorthand?
0:22:12 > 0:22:14I am an official, not a typist.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18The Enterprise Allowance Scheme, Job Release Scheme,
0:22:18 > 0:22:19Community Scheme.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23They will expect you to have at least some knowledge of those,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26even if you can't fully get to grips with them.
0:22:29 > 0:22:35What is wrong with two human beings of the opposite sex
0:22:35 > 0:22:39feeling attracted to each other?
0:22:39 > 0:22:41I don't see how that can be scandalous.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45For some reason, all the attention seems to be on her.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Sequins, that's what you need!
0:22:48 > 0:22:51As Secretary Of State for Wales,
0:22:51 > 0:22:53William Hague fared better than Alan Clark.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56He and Ffion Jenkins his Private Office secretary
0:22:56 > 0:22:58fell in love and they got married.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06The one thing the private office does,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and I think does brilliantly actually, is it's loyal.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14You do know they will come in and they'll close the door
0:23:14 > 0:23:17and tell you where they think this wasn't your finest moment,
0:23:17 > 0:23:22or indeed, "Let's equip you for what's hopefully a finer moment tomorrow."
0:23:22 > 0:23:24But they are on your side
0:23:24 > 0:23:27and they see their job as serving their country through this minister.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31The Private Office is a vital part
0:23:31 > 0:23:36of the ability of a minister to run his or her department
0:23:36 > 0:23:38and to carry out policy.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Essential to it is a relationship of trust
0:23:42 > 0:23:44and what I think is so remarkable
0:23:44 > 0:23:47is that in all the years I have been in politics,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51I can think of no instance at all
0:23:51 > 0:23:53of a private secretary breaching that trust
0:23:53 > 0:23:57by telling stories about his minister or her minister
0:23:57 > 0:23:58to the newspapers,
0:23:58 > 0:24:00to television or the media.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02If they do, it's so wonderfully private
0:24:02 > 0:24:04that nobody ever discovers.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10One remarkable episode that was kept completely secret by the Number Ten Private Office
0:24:10 > 0:24:14happened in the summer of 1953.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17It involved the Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22He suffered a severe stroke and was no longer able to function.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24Churchill's Private Office decided
0:24:24 > 0:24:27that the outside world must be kept in the dark
0:24:27 > 0:24:32and conspired with the powerful press barons.
0:24:32 > 0:24:33The Tory MP Bill Deedes,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36who was soon to become a Churchill minister,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40worked closely with the proprietor of The Daily Telegraph.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42There was...
0:24:42 > 0:24:45I don't use the word - there was an agreement,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49not a conspiracy, to keep it quiet.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51And it worked.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Churchill's Private Office that was headed by Sir Jock Colville,
0:24:55 > 0:24:56who'd been with him during the war,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00reached a deal to keep news of Churchill's condition out of the press.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04And Colville along with Christopher Soames, Churchill's son-in-law,
0:25:04 > 0:25:05ran the country.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09While the real Prime Minister was kept incommunicado and out of public sight,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Colville and Soames were Churchill impersonators.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Christopher Soames knew how to get the signature right.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21He could sign, "Winston Churchill."
0:25:21 > 0:25:26So after Churchill had his stroke, Soames was signing...
0:25:26 > 0:25:29I think there was a bit of that, yes.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33You know this?
0:25:35 > 0:25:38I suppose I do, yes.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41But I don't think, really,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45that the covering up of his stroke was deceitful.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50I don't think it was a black mark on government.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54It was quite important
0:25:54 > 0:25:59to maintain an appearance of normality.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Anyway, we managed to do it.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05All the private offices in the ministries of Whitehall
0:26:05 > 0:26:08are repositories of secrets held by civil servants
0:26:08 > 0:26:11about their political masters.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15They have to know every bit of the emotional life, pretty well,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17of the minister they are serving.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20If they have mistresses, they have to know about them
0:26:20 > 0:26:23in case they have to get them all times of night and day.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25And they have to have no secrets from each other
0:26:25 > 0:26:27if it's going to work properly.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34One of the ways that the Private Office civil servants discover everything they can,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37happens every time a minister makes phone call.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44The way it worked with the Tory minister Peter Walker in the '70s
0:26:44 > 0:26:46is the way it's still done in Private Office today.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48Everything a minister says
0:26:48 > 0:26:52is monitored by a private secretary listening in on extension outside.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56I remember when I first stepped into my Private Office
0:26:56 > 0:27:00I was horrified to note that when I picked up the phone,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04another phone was being picked up at the instantaneous moment.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07After about ten minutes of this,
0:27:07 > 0:27:12I remember barging into the secretary's office, next door to mine
0:27:12 > 0:27:15and saying, "What the hell do you think you're doing?
0:27:15 > 0:27:17"Why are you listening to my conversations?
0:27:17 > 0:27:20"No, you're not entitled to do that, I don't want any more of it."
0:27:20 > 0:27:22They then patiently explain to me
0:27:22 > 0:27:26that every conversation conducted by a minister
0:27:26 > 0:27:29is listened to by his or her civil servant.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Did that come as a surprise to you?
0:27:32 > 0:27:34That someone listens in? It did.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37And I didn't realise at first,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41so you're having a conversation and Simon would come in
0:27:41 > 0:27:45and I would start explaining, "I've had a phone call from Number Ten."
0:27:45 > 0:27:48And he'd say, "Yes, I know, I was listening."
0:27:48 > 0:27:52"Oh." It struck me as rather rude.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54Of course, it's really important.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Most ministers except that for everything
0:27:58 > 0:28:00apart from entirely private conversations,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04an official will listen in to a conversation.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07That's quite important and useful
0:28:07 > 0:28:09because if you're not listening in,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12no doubt somebody will be listening in at the other end
0:28:12 > 0:28:16and you'll have a phone call where the other Private Office says, "You're minister said X."
0:28:16 > 0:28:19If you haven't been listening, how do you know he said X rather than Y?
0:28:19 > 0:28:22If I am having a phone call with a senior colleague,
0:28:22 > 0:28:24another member of the Cabinet,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27Lord knows how many people are listening,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30probably four or five by the time you finish.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33The person responsible for that area of policy,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36someone from my private office, my colleagues.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41And it's a way of not having to get into the car
0:28:41 > 0:28:43and have a recorded meeting.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45That's very important,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47not least because it stops you arguing a week later
0:28:47 > 0:28:49about what you did agree on
0:28:49 > 0:28:53and also means that somebody automatically actions it.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57There's always at least one person, sometimes a whole team,
0:28:57 > 0:29:00it's a bloody spectator sport, making a phone call.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03When it's really difficult, you know,
0:29:03 > 0:29:04if it's an issue about
0:29:04 > 0:29:08the spending review and you are negotiating with the Treasury
0:29:08 > 0:29:11or a phone call with the Prime Minister.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13You have lots of people,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16everyone listening in at both ends of the phone call.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20The Number Ten Private Office
0:29:20 > 0:29:22is the nerve centre of Whitehall,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25monitoring all calls and seeking to draw the positives
0:29:25 > 0:29:29from face to face meetings that the PM holds.
0:29:29 > 0:29:30When I was Health Secretary,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33I had the most frightful rows with Margaret Thatcher.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37I used to have one-to-ones with her in Downing Street.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40They were the most unbelievable, lively rows,
0:29:40 > 0:29:42both of us quite liked having lively political debate
0:29:42 > 0:29:44but she could be pretty forceful.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49And the private secretary from her office used to keep a minute
0:29:49 > 0:29:50and decide what it was we'd agreed on
0:29:50 > 0:29:54when you couldn't have got the two of us to agree on what we had agreed on.
0:29:54 > 0:30:00My Private Office used to ring him up before I got back, he told me later,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03and he would mark it on the Richter scale for liveliness
0:30:03 > 0:30:06so they'd know what I would be like when I came in
0:30:06 > 0:30:08and how lively this one had been.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12A prime task for the civil servants in the Private Office network
0:30:12 > 0:30:17across Whitehall is to deal with the vast flow of paperwork that comes in
0:30:17 > 0:30:19requiring answers every day.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21The Private Office has to go through it
0:30:21 > 0:30:24and decide what they can deal with themselves
0:30:24 > 0:30:26and what they should send up to the minister,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31along with their advice and recommendations for action.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36The Private Office have a very, very important sifting role.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39Half the stuff the department wants me to see
0:30:39 > 0:30:40is impossible for one man to see.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44They have to decide on priority, have to decide on urgency,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49and what the Secretary of State will either want to see or needs to see,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51what he needn't see and what can just be farmed off.
0:30:54 > 0:31:00A huge amount of information now comes into the Private Office -
0:31:00 > 0:31:02far more than ever before.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05And that puts a great burden and responsibility
0:31:05 > 0:31:07on the people who do the sifting
0:31:07 > 0:31:10because the Foreign Secretary still only has 24 hours in the day,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12he still needs to sleep.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16And therefore the people outside his office, the sifters,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19who decide what he's going to see
0:31:19 > 0:31:22are much more important than they used to be
0:31:22 > 0:31:26because the volume of stuff arriving in that office is so huge.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29You have to concentrate, like so many things,
0:31:29 > 0:31:30on what is urgent and important
0:31:30 > 0:31:34and what doesn't matter so much. It's probably got harder
0:31:34 > 0:31:36with the number of e-mails coming in,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40because often people now will copy in all ministers as an insurance policy
0:31:40 > 0:31:42to say you have seen it.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44The job of filtering of the Private Secretary
0:31:44 > 0:31:47and the Private Office becomes even more important.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49You never know what they have sifted
0:31:49 > 0:31:51because you only see what comes to you.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55But I never remember being let down by my Private Office,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59my assumption is they did a first class job.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02They know what you need to see
0:32:02 > 0:32:06and things being copied that aren't relevant to you or don't affect you,
0:32:06 > 0:32:08they save you the burden of sifting yourself.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11If you could complete the first four by Saturday,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14your driver could collect them and deliver the other two.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21The famous red box is the focal point of the Private Office.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Every day Private Secretaries will pack at least one red box
0:32:24 > 0:32:29full of important papers for the minister to deal with overnight.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34The different Private Offices, like this one in the foreign office,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38develop their own techniques to encourage ministers
0:32:38 > 0:32:41to finish their boxes. They pack the papers in a special order,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44with the simplest at the bottom.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47We put in the signature folders first, mostly letters to other MPs
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and to constituents which he has got to sign.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53They are supposed to be the easiest.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56And then things that are for information -
0:32:56 > 0:32:58it might be some intelligence,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01it might be letters from influential people
0:33:01 > 0:33:05and then submissions, usually recommending action, or notes from us
0:33:05 > 0:33:08saying, "We have a problem on this. What do you want to do about it?"
0:33:08 > 0:33:12You open it up. On the very top will be the diary. Bright orange.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Underneath would be briefs for every meeting he has the next day.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22One person from one of your Private Offices
0:33:22 > 0:33:25told us that to encourage you to do your papers
0:33:25 > 0:33:28they would put in a chocolate bar some way into the box
0:33:28 > 0:33:29so you would work through it.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32That's not true!
0:33:32 > 0:33:35I'm not greatly into chocolate bars.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39No, no, he or she has got the wrong minister.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42They wouldn't get me with a chocolate bar.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44Almost all women are accessory-conscientious,
0:33:44 > 0:33:46characteristic of the gender.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48Mrs Thatcher was too,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51and so she and I would take home four red boxes a night
0:33:51 > 0:33:54and rely on the fact we were...
0:33:54 > 0:33:58able to sleep for less time than most men require
0:33:58 > 0:34:03to get through these blasted boxes, hour after hour of them.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05I had an arrangement with my Private Secretary -
0:34:05 > 0:34:09he would signal in the box when I had reached the stage
0:34:09 > 0:34:12that I didn't need to go any further.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15There was a submission on a European Standard bus stop
0:34:15 > 0:34:18which had come out of some crackpot conference
0:34:18 > 0:34:21and what it meant was, everything above that,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24as I worked through my box, that had to be done,
0:34:24 > 0:34:25"Best done tonight if you can."
0:34:25 > 0:34:30When I reached the European bus stop, firstly that was a little signal,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33"Below this if you have got time. Below this is not a priority."
0:34:33 > 0:34:35Some ministers do like...
0:34:35 > 0:34:39taking the box home and working on it by themselves overnight.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41Other ministers will take a box home
0:34:41 > 0:34:43and it will come back in the morning.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46I remember Ken Clarke would do that and sometimes say,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48"I went to Ronnie Scott's last night."
0:34:48 > 0:34:50The box remains undone in the morning.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52What did you think of that?
0:34:52 > 0:34:56It's a good idea to go out until 3am to listen to jazz at Ronnie Scott's,
0:34:56 > 0:34:57and, on the whole,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Ken Clarke would catch up with the box during the day.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:35:06 > 0:35:09How long are you staying tonight?
0:35:09 > 0:35:11Half eight Ministry of Defence tomorrow.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14You're there later on, I think. One o'clock?
0:35:14 > 0:35:16I was younger then. I haven't been to Ronnie's
0:35:16 > 0:35:18for years, I'm far too old now.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21But I used to go and when I first started I would go to Ronnie's
0:35:21 > 0:35:23and get back home three in the morning
0:35:23 > 0:35:29and then do the boxes still going the next day, usually.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31I can't remember this occasion.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35There's no point, if you're dropping asleep over a box
0:35:35 > 0:35:39there is no point in do because you will make a frightful mess
0:35:39 > 0:35:41of whatever you're reading and you will not remember it
0:35:41 > 0:35:44or agree things you shouldn't.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Inside Number 10 the top box of all is packed
0:35:49 > 0:35:52on the round table in the principal private secretary's office.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54It's then taken to the Prime Minister.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59One of Margaret Thatcher's private secretaries describes
0:35:59 > 0:36:04how the Private Office seeks to help the Prime Minister reach decisions
0:36:04 > 0:36:06on the contents of the red box.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09What we try to do would on the top of any pile of
0:36:09 > 0:36:14papers however complicated to strip it to its essentials.
0:36:14 > 0:36:15Sometimes you could do it in one word.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17"Prime Minister the Foreign Secretary says we should
0:36:17 > 0:36:21"go to war with Iran, agree, question mark."
0:36:21 > 0:36:23And she can write yes or no.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27Sometimes you have to build that up into a fuller response.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30If he has put in a lot of thought and it comes out
0:36:30 > 0:36:34with no written with an exclamation mark you can't write back
0:36:34 > 0:36:37saying the Prime Minister has read the Chancellor's paper and says no.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42You have to draw on your knowledge of the Prime Minister's mind and perhaps
0:36:42 > 0:36:44enlarge that into a paragraph of
0:36:44 > 0:36:47carefully considered views, which are contrary to those of the Chancellor
0:36:47 > 0:36:50of Exchequer leading to a balanced conclusion.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53But that is part of the art and craft of the trade of private secretary.
0:36:53 > 0:36:58Andrew Turnbull was Principal Private Secretary in the Number Ten
0:36:58 > 0:37:02private office for many years and saw how different Prime Ministers
0:37:02 > 0:37:05dealt with their red boxes.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10Mrs Thatcher was legendary in doing the box. Many a time,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13half past nine, ten o'clock
0:37:13 > 0:37:15you go up to the flat in the evening,
0:37:15 > 0:37:20ring the bell, drop the box in, run off and get home.
0:37:20 > 0:37:26And come back, 8.30am the next morning and it's nearly all been read
0:37:26 > 0:37:29and what's more nearly all been dispatched in
0:37:29 > 0:37:31the sense of you have an answer.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34John Major was also very diligent.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38I would say he was as diligent and put in the work,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42didn't have quite a high score on the decide factor.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48You had a few more please refers but he was a believer in the daily box.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Tony Blair was much more, "I will only deal with the things that
0:37:52 > 0:37:55"are important and deal with it at the weekend."
0:37:55 > 0:37:57I wasn't
0:37:57 > 0:38:01fortunately in Number 10 when
0:38:01 > 0:38:03Gordon was
0:38:03 > 0:38:09Prime Minister but he was also a slow decider.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14One Number Ten official says that Gordon Brown would never finish
0:38:14 > 0:38:16his paperwork.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19And as well as the red boxes the Prime Minister alone
0:38:19 > 0:38:22gets another rather special box.
0:38:22 > 0:38:27We had a separate box, which was of a different colour from the main box
0:38:27 > 0:38:33for particularly sensitive papers, which only the Prime Minister
0:38:33 > 0:38:36- and principal private secretary had access to.- What colour was that box?
0:38:36 > 0:38:40It was blue with a red stripe and it was known as old stripey.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45And this had a secret intelligence files and the spy stuff?
0:38:45 > 0:38:49And highly confidential stuff, not just intelligence but other
0:38:49 > 0:38:53highly confidential and personal stuff,
0:38:53 > 0:38:55which the principal private secretary was dealing with
0:38:55 > 0:38:57directly with the Prime Minister.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00And was old stripey the one
0:39:00 > 0:39:04the Prime Minister would turn to first as far as you know?
0:39:04 > 0:39:07Quite often it was because it tended to have
0:39:07 > 0:39:09the sort of juicy stuff in it.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15In the Number Ten private office there would be regular battles
0:39:15 > 0:39:21over the red boxes between the civil servants and the political advisers.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23There used to be the most unseemly competition
0:39:23 > 0:39:26on Friday evening to get the last word onto the various papers
0:39:26 > 0:39:29going into the Prime Minister's weekend box, under John Major or
0:39:29 > 0:39:33under Mrs Thatcher. The Political Secretary, who would be a political
0:39:33 > 0:39:36appointee, and the head of the Policy Unit, who was a political appointee,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39would stay late and try and write a memo to put right on top of the
0:39:39 > 0:39:41pile of papers saying, really, you should do this. Because they knew
0:39:41 > 0:39:45that's what would get read first at least before all the rest was read.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47But the Cabinet Secretary and Principal Private Secretary,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50the two civil servants, were much cannier and would always outwait them
0:39:50 > 0:39:54on a Friday evening to stick the very last word on top of their last words.
0:39:54 > 0:39:55So there was no-one to arbitrate
0:39:55 > 0:39:58those kind of disputes, and that's what we thought we needed.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Powell were New Labour's top two
0:40:02 > 0:40:06special advisers, with the power to give orders to civil servants.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09The Super Spads spawned a new satire.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11- Malcolm, do you know...? - Obviously, he knows.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13No, he doesn't know...
0:40:13 > 0:40:17There has been a massive, irretrievable data loss.
0:40:17 > 0:40:22The last seven months' worth of new immigrant details have gone,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24apparently, lost in the computer.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36So, what is your great strategy for dealing with this?
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Come on, I mean, I'm fuckin' all ears, I'm fuckin' Andrew Marr here!
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Tony Blair was determined greatly
0:40:43 > 0:40:47to strengthen the political side of the Number Ten Private Office.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50He brought in a record number of 30 special advisers.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53He wanted to ensure that ministers and their
0:40:53 > 0:40:59Private Offices across Whitehall danced to Number Ten's tune.
0:40:59 > 0:41:00Bloody Number Ten!
0:41:00 > 0:41:02My special adviser on the
0:41:02 > 0:41:08communications side, Chris Norton, got a phone call from Number Ten,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12irate because they'd heard I was doing a 8.10 interview on
0:41:12 > 0:41:15the Today programme, and there was all hell to pay.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18What is he doing on there,
0:41:18 > 0:41:19why's he doing it, what's the subject?
0:41:19 > 0:41:25It was actually the BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was held hostage
0:41:25 > 0:41:29for all that time, who was on the 8.10 interview on the BBC,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32but someone at Number Ten had heard,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36"At 8.10, we'll be talking to Alan Johnson." Whoosh... There were...
0:41:36 > 0:41:38phone calls everywhere!
0:41:38 > 0:41:42So you certainly weren't allowed to kind of, without Number Ten
0:41:42 > 0:41:46knowing about it, be doing major radio or TV interviews.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51When Johnson became Home Secretary two years ago, almost his first act
0:41:51 > 0:41:53was to see that his four Spads would
0:41:53 > 0:41:58have proper accommodation next to his own room and Private Office.
0:41:58 > 0:41:59Let me go and have a look where they are.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02- OK.- I need to know my Spads are comfortable.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04They are, actually.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Oh...
0:42:09 > 0:42:12Johnson discovered that his Spads would have the room next door.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14I know, we've got a sofa...
0:42:14 > 0:42:16- Look at that!- Excitement!
0:42:18 > 0:42:20That's not too bad actually, is it?
0:42:20 > 0:42:22We promise not to use your loo when you're not there.
0:42:25 > 0:42:26Yeah, that's great.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30Can you remember, you were concerned about the office for your
0:42:30 > 0:42:33special advisers and kept saying, "Where are my Spads going to sit?"
0:42:33 > 0:42:36- Do you remember any of that? - Er, yeah, I do, because,
0:42:36 > 0:42:40you know, I'd been to places where the Spads were kind of
0:42:40 > 0:42:43down the end of a very long corridor and a long way from you, and I'd been
0:42:43 > 0:42:48in places where they were very close to me but in a little hovel.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51I mean, I wanted to make sure they were properly looked after.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54So, yes, that was a question -
0:42:54 > 0:42:56a very important question - about how the mechanics...
0:42:56 > 0:42:59They were actually through another door
0:42:59 > 0:43:03in a very nice room, probably the best accommodation they've ever had.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05Far too posh for them, in my view, but
0:43:05 > 0:43:07they were through the door.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09So we had kind of connecting doors,
0:43:09 > 0:43:11we were in touch with each other, and that was important.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14What is the role of the Spad?
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Well, I guess it depends on the relationship with the minister,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21but for me, it was always you're the eyes and ears of your minister...
0:43:21 > 0:43:24along with the Private Office, you are that
0:43:24 > 0:43:29barrier between the minister and an outside world that wants to, in many
0:43:29 > 0:43:33respects, try and make your life much more difficult than it is,
0:43:33 > 0:43:35or frustrate you in your objectives.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40So you are an adviser on policy, you are an adviser on communications,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43and you are an adviser - and this is where it changes from
0:43:43 > 0:43:48the civil service - you are an adviser on political strategy,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51and you can be party political and you're allowed to be.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55And it's very important that you can do that, so that
0:43:55 > 0:43:57you send the right signals and messages out to the public
0:43:57 > 0:44:00in terms of what you're trying to achieve as a political party.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02Part of it is ensuring that you don't
0:44:02 > 0:44:04just become a little enclave where the only people you
0:44:04 > 0:44:07talk to are your special advisers. You have to bring other people in.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09The sensible Secretary of State will have their
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Principal Private Secretary in with the special advisers.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15They can't get involved in the political discussions
0:44:15 > 0:44:18but they're there listening. The Principal Private Secretary
0:44:18 > 0:44:20then works much better with the special advisers and as a result,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23so does the whole department.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25If special advisers
0:44:25 > 0:44:29act purely with the minister and lock out
0:44:29 > 0:44:31Private Office, lock out the rest of
0:44:31 > 0:44:34the civil service, if the Secretary of State colludes in that, you will
0:44:34 > 0:44:39have a disastrous department and a very unsuccessful Secretary of State.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43The new Labour Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers, brought in his own
0:44:43 > 0:44:48personally appointed special adviser called Jo Moore.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52She alienated the Private Office by what they saw as her bullying style.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55The department had become hugely controversial.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00In a notorious e-mail on the day of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04Jo Moore wrote it would be a very good day to get out any bad news
0:45:04 > 0:45:05the Ministry wanted to bury.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08The e-mail was sent to Alun Evans,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10who'd been Principal Private Secretary
0:45:10 > 0:45:14and was now the Transport Ministry's Director of Communications.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18I was surprised.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22It was a very unusual e-mail to have sent, I seem to recall.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25But what did you think at that stage when you got an e-mail like that,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29- "This would be a good day to bury bad news?"- I was shocked by it.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31Mr Byers, can you look up, please?
0:45:31 > 0:45:35The political pressure on Stephen Byers had increased dramatically
0:45:35 > 0:45:38after Jo Moore's e-mail was leaked from the Ministry to the media.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Is that all right with you, sir?
0:45:40 > 0:45:42- No, get them out.- Yes.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Would you mind, please? Just move out of here, please.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50But Byers refused to sack Jo Moore, and she was kept hidden away until
0:45:50 > 0:45:54it was decided she should make a ritual public apology.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59I'd like to sincerely apologise for the huge offence that I caused
0:45:59 > 0:46:01by sending the e-mail.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05I can well understand the disgust people will feel with what I wrote.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07I very much wish I hadn't written it.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10In fact, I find it difficult to believe that I did write it.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Byers now faced calls to resign, as he stuck by Jo Moore.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20And there was open conflict within the Ministry.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25I think that the furore around that was actually a reflection of the
0:46:25 > 0:46:28fact that the relationship between the Special Advisers' Office
0:46:28 > 0:46:31and the civil service at the time was a poor one.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35And from what I know from the background to that,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39there was perhaps some high-handed activity on the part of
0:46:39 > 0:46:41the special advisers there towards civil servants,
0:46:41 > 0:46:45and civil servants then used the opportunity to get their revenge
0:46:45 > 0:46:50in the best way possible, you know, as a dish served cold.
0:46:50 > 0:46:55Ministry officials leaked stories about Jo Moore's behaviour.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57The leaks were so damaging
0:46:57 > 0:47:00that the top mandarin at Transport, Sir Richard Mottram, used the
0:47:00 > 0:47:04strongest language to describe how bad the whole affair had been.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07- I've nothing to say. - Could you understand why
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Richard Mottram said, "We're fucked, you're fucked, we're all fucked"?
0:47:10 > 0:47:15Well, Richard, in Mottram-esque language, was capturing the
0:47:15 > 0:47:18predicament the department was in at that time.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20But I suppose in a way, that was
0:47:20 > 0:47:26seen as the epitome of how a special adviser thinks...
0:47:26 > 0:47:30It was, but I would say that was a great exception to the way many
0:47:30 > 0:47:34special advisers work in the fact that there are one or two examples
0:47:34 > 0:47:37where the relationship went wrong or, in that case, spectacularly wrong.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40I don't think that takes away from the importance
0:47:40 > 0:47:42of the special adviser role.
0:47:42 > 0:47:48Jo Moore was on her bike, forced to resign, as was her minister.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Number Ten said there'd been "civil war" in the Ministry.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55Although the number of special advisers had grown sharply
0:47:55 > 0:47:58under New Labour, they weren't a New Labour invention.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00There had been earlier spectacular examples
0:48:00 > 0:48:05of how Spads could rupture relations not just within
0:48:05 > 0:48:10a Ministry, but between departments, right up to the top of government.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14One celebrated case involved the Treasury and Number Ten.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16Professor Alan Walters,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19a right-wing market economist, who'd been brought into Number Ten
0:48:19 > 0:48:24by Margaret Thatcher, was to be her Special adviser on Economics.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27But the Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, who'd begun as
0:48:27 > 0:48:29a Mrs Thatcher favourite, came to resent Walters going
0:48:29 > 0:48:34public with views on the economy, which differed sharply from his own.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37The markets didn't know whether to believe what
0:48:37 > 0:48:40the Chancellor was saying because, was that really the Government's
0:48:40 > 0:48:42policy, or was the Government's policy a different policy,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45which they were getting from the Prime Minister's personal adviser?
0:48:45 > 0:48:49And that made it impossible, I felt, for me to do my job properly.
0:48:49 > 0:48:55He objected to my having the Prime Minister's ear, and on pouring what
0:48:55 > 0:48:59he regarded as poison down it, what I regarded as the truth.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Lawson delivered an ultimatum
0:49:01 > 0:49:07to Mrs Thatcher, saying she had to choose between himself and Walters.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10Nigel knocked me down with a feather.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15For a Chancellor of the Exchequer with all of the importance and
0:49:15 > 0:49:22reputation of that position to come to me and say, "Unless you sack one
0:49:22 > 0:49:27"of your most loyal advisers, I will resign," I couldn't believe it!
0:49:29 > 0:49:32I hated resigning.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34It was certainly the last thing I wanted to do.
0:49:36 > 0:49:42# There's a man that lives next door in my neighbourhood
0:49:42 > 0:49:45# In my neighbourhood
0:49:45 > 0:49:47# He gets me down...
0:49:47 > 0:49:50The fraught relations between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown
0:49:50 > 0:49:55were made worse over a decade by anonymous attacks by each side's
0:49:55 > 0:49:57special advisers on the other.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01One briefing dramatically raised the stakes.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05A top-level Number Ten source with a good claim to know the mind of
0:50:05 > 0:50:10the Prime Minister, described Gordon Brown as psychologically flawed.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14The Brownites, including Ed Balls and the spin doctor Charlie Whelan,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17reacted angrily.
0:50:17 > 0:50:18Gordon Brown was very upset,
0:50:18 > 0:50:25and rightly so, because that's not the sort of thing that you expect
0:50:25 > 0:50:27from Number Ten.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29So he was very upset.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32Where do you think the psychologically flawed came from?
0:50:32 > 0:50:34According to the people who've
0:50:34 > 0:50:35written about these things, it came from Alastair Campbell.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38That's certainly where we thought it came from.
0:50:38 > 0:50:39Well, that's not true.
0:50:39 > 0:50:43- It's not true?- No, it's not true. - You didn't say that?- No.- Really?
0:50:43 > 0:50:44No. Yeah, absolutely not true.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47- You did not say that?- No.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50- Um, you surprise me. - Well, there you are.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52You get surprised by a lot of things, Michael.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59While New Labour's top two attempted a public show of unity, the Spads,
0:50:59 > 0:51:04in their Private Offices, escalated the war of smear and counter smear.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08When Matthew Taylor - a new Political Strategy Adviser -
0:51:08 > 0:51:11arrived at Number Ten, he sought to negotiate
0:51:11 > 0:51:16a peace treaty between the warring Private Offices of the tribes.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21One of my many examples of naivety going into Number Ten was thinking
0:51:21 > 0:51:24that I could overcome the Gordon Brown-Tony Blair conflict, that I
0:51:24 > 0:51:28was somebody who liked Tony personally, absolutely understood
0:51:28 > 0:51:30what a brilliant politician he was, but actually had a bit more sympathy
0:51:30 > 0:51:33for Gordon and his kind of Social-Democratic credentials.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36I was the person to bring peace to this! And I remember every week,
0:51:36 > 0:51:37I used to go for a walk in the park
0:51:37 > 0:51:41for the first few months with Ed Miliband, who was working for Gordon.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44We'd walk round the park and I would try and be as open and discursive
0:51:44 > 0:51:46with Ed as I possibly could about what Number Ten was doing.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48I would say, you know, I'm not sure Tony's right about this, I'm trying
0:51:48 > 0:51:51to persuade him on this one and that one and the other.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54And we'd get to the end of the walk, coming out of St James's Park,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57and there'd be a pause and I'd wait for Ed to share with me
0:51:57 > 0:52:00what was happening in the Treasury and where Gordon's persuasions were
0:52:00 > 0:52:04and where his preferences lay, and there'd be nothing.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Ed would just say, "Thanks for that," and he would disappear back into
0:52:07 > 0:52:09the Treasury. So I did that for a few weeks
0:52:09 > 0:52:12and then came to realise it was pretty futile.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17The war reached new levels of resentment and vehemence,
0:52:17 > 0:52:22as relations between Ten and Eleven went into meltdown.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Can you understand why it is that special advisers are seen as part of
0:52:25 > 0:52:28the blackouts and the dirty-tricks department,
0:52:28 > 0:52:32and smearing people, including their own colleagues?
0:52:32 > 0:52:36Well, I think... I mean, that did go
0:52:36 > 0:52:42on and I know it went on under Labour when we were in government.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Not systematically, there were
0:52:45 > 0:52:48- individuals who were motivated to do that.- Why have you stood down?
0:52:48 > 0:52:52The macho style of some prominent New Labour spin doctors like
0:52:52 > 0:52:56Charlie Whelan and Alastair Campbell was taken to a new level
0:52:56 > 0:52:58by Damian McBride.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02His proposed sex-smear e-mails against top Tories
0:53:02 > 0:53:05made The Thick Of It seem more documentary than satire.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Do not make this a disciplinary issue, do you hear me, soldier?!
0:53:10 > 0:53:12I found her! I found...
0:53:12 > 0:53:15She was on the fuckin' news! Get this guy out of here!
0:53:15 > 0:53:18- This is not a fuckin' discussion! - Right, nobody argue, OK?
0:53:18 > 0:53:21I am going to go in there and I am going to take...
0:53:21 > 0:53:23- No, you're fuckin' not! - Fuck off!- Oh, fuck...
0:53:23 > 0:53:26- Jesus Christ!- You've hurt yourself.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29Oh, I've got so much on as it is!
0:53:29 > 0:53:31- You hit me!- I did not hit you.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34I'm going to hit the fuckin' wall and pull my fist back and hit you in
0:53:34 > 0:53:36the fuckin' face instead.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40- I think you've broken my nose! - No, that's my just a scratch, mate.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43How accurate a portrayal do you think The Thick Of It is?
0:53:43 > 0:53:47Well, I think there are a few I can remember who actually
0:53:47 > 0:53:52would model themselves on the Malcolm Tucker character,
0:53:52 > 0:53:58who actually see that as the way you do things. But that wouldn't be me.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02My goal was to have good relationships with Private Office,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05because they're that line of defence for your minister
0:54:05 > 0:54:08against the wider civil service and the media and the world.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13The first ever televised Leaders' Debates dominated
0:54:13 > 0:54:15last year's General Election.
0:54:15 > 0:54:22Facing Gordon Brown were two former Spads, David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24Journalists watched the debate in the media centre
0:54:24 > 0:54:28that became known as "Spin Alley".
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Three men, each of whom wants to be our next Prime Minister.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36Every promise you hear from each of us this evening depends
0:54:36 > 0:54:40on one thing, a strong economy...
0:54:40 > 0:54:43The New Labour spadocracy followed the debate in a private room.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45Get the positions right now
0:54:45 > 0:54:49and we can have secure jobs, we can have standards of living rising...
0:54:49 > 0:54:52As the debate ended, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson,
0:54:52 > 0:54:54Labour's campaign manager, sought to spin
0:54:54 > 0:54:56the journalists against Cameron.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01It's precisely that sort of arrogance, that sense of entitlement
0:55:01 > 0:55:04that Mr Cameron exudes.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08George Osborne, Cameron's fellow ex-Spad, was also spinning.
0:55:15 > 0:55:16Osborne was briefing Ben Brogan,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Political Editor of the Conservative Daily Telegraph.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Ben, Ben, Ben?
0:55:22 > 0:55:23Tell George what to say...
0:55:23 > 0:55:26INDISTINCT
0:55:26 > 0:55:28Go on... No, George, don't be put off your stride.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30Come on.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39But back in his Whitehall Ministry, on the eve of the General Election,
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Peter Mandelson, the prototype political adviser
0:55:43 > 0:55:45who'd become Gordon Brown's highest-ranking minister,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49prepared to thank the civil servants who ran his Private Office.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51I've got some very, very good news...
0:55:51 > 0:55:56Win or lose, I could just stay!
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Obviously, if we win, it would be business as usual and I could just
0:56:00 > 0:56:05take decisions, sign warrants, dispense money like a Bourbon king!
0:56:05 > 0:56:07If we don't win,
0:56:07 > 0:56:11I still stay, but help whoever comes in.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14I'm not able to go round the whole department
0:56:14 > 0:56:17thanking everyone individually,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21but I can thank you because you've been so wonderful for me.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25You've just supported me and just given me the time of my life.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33The election saw the triumph of the Spads, who now held the two
0:56:33 > 0:56:35highest offices in the land.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41And another Spad graduate from
0:56:41 > 0:56:43Private Office was the new Chancellor.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50And four out of five of the candidates for the job of
0:56:50 > 0:56:55Leader of the Opposition to Osborne, Clegg and Cameron were also Spads.
0:56:55 > 0:57:01Ed Miliband received 19.934%.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03Ed Miliband had beaten his older brother.
0:57:03 > 0:57:04Ed had worked in
0:57:04 > 0:57:07Gordon Brown's Private Office, while David had worked for Blair.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Like Cameron, the brothers had read
0:57:09 > 0:57:15PPE at Oxford, as had fellow Spad Ed Balls, who became Shadow Chancellor.
0:57:16 > 0:57:17Ed Miliband.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19MPS: Hear, hear!
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Speaker, I do say to him, there is increasing concern
0:57:23 > 0:57:25about the Government's competence.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28Mr Speaker, does the Prime Minister think it's just a problem with the
0:57:28 > 0:57:32Foreign Secretary, or is it a wider problem in his government?
0:57:32 > 0:57:35First of all, he raises the issue of the Foreign Secretary.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37Let me tell you, I think we have an excellent Foreign Secretary.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39CHEERING
0:57:39 > 0:57:44And when it comes to it, there's only one person I can remember round
0:57:44 > 0:57:49here knifing a Foreign Secretary, and I think I'm looking at him!
0:57:49 > 0:57:52CHEERING
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Over the past 50 years, the arrival of the special
0:57:57 > 0:58:01advisers has dramatically altered the balance of power in Whitehall.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03The new professional political class
0:58:03 > 0:58:06that cut its teeth in the Private Offices
0:58:06 > 0:58:09and was famously characterised as "the people who live in the dark"
0:58:09 > 0:58:12has grown to take over the reins of power.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15In constitutional theory, the Head of Government was first
0:58:15 > 0:58:18among equals, but these days, the Prime Minister of Britain
0:58:18 > 0:58:21is first among Spads.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:24 > 0:58:28E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk