Firms bidding for government contracts asked if they back Brexit
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Version 0 of 1. Contractors bidding for work with the government are being asked to affirm that they back Brexit. Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade (DIT) has inserted a clause into advertisements inviting tech companies to bid for work, saying that in order to have the right “cultural fit” for the task, they must “be committed to the best possible outcome for the United Kingdom following its departure from the European Union”. Pro-Brexit ministers have sometimes been frustrated by civil servants’ lack of enthusiasm for the complex task of unpicking Britain’s close relationship with the EU and appear to be determined to hire firms that share their optimism. Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary and prominent leave campaigner, used a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce on Tuesday to condemn “droning and moaning” about the risks of leaving the EU. Last December, contractor Deloitte apologised after details of a damning report it had written about Downing Street’s plans for handling the article 50 process were leaked. The company also agreed to pull out of bidding for government contracts for six months. The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, said: “The Conservative Brexit government demanding there must be a ‘cultural fit’ is straight out of the pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four. “The private opinions of government employees have always been their own business. Now they are required to support Brexit, will they have to support the Tories too?” Farron added: “Professionals will always strive for the best outcomes in their work without being told how they should and shouldn’t think.” The “cultural fit” requirement appears in two government advertisements for short-term digital contracts. One invites bids from firms to “investigate the feasibility of designing a system to manage intelligence on market access barriers”; another is for “investigating the feasibility of creating certain services around trade remedies as trade legislation is transferred from the EU to the UK”. As Theresa May prepares to trigger article 50, the two new government departments she set up to oversee the process – DIT and the Department for Exiting the European Union – are both hiring staff and contractors. The requirement to back the best deal for Britain is one of a list of criteria applicants for the two DIT contracts are asked to fulfil, alongside being “focused enough to stick to the task at hand”, “committed and hard-working” and “enthused by the prospect of working at the frontline in such an exciting and dynamic area”. In total, these “cultural fit” criteria will be given a 15% weighting in assessing which company to pick, the ads say. Academics and former senior civil servants have repeatedly warned about the complexity of the task facing politicians in extricating Britain from the EU, with one thinktank, UK in a Changing Europe, warning recently that it could overwhelm the capacities of the state; but these sceptics have often been accused of trying to “block Brexit”. Fox cannot yet draw up new trade deals because the UK will continue to trade under existing arrangements while it remains a member of the EU. But he has been travelling the world in a process his advisers call “pitch-rolling” for new deals that can be signed as soon as possible after Brexit. Article 50 kicks off a two-year process of negotiations with the other 27 EU member states. May has repeatedly said she intends to invoke it before the end of March. A DIT spokesperson said: “Ongoing recruitment is enabling us to build a team from the widest pool of talent in the civil service and externally, across a range of policy and corporate expertise and international experience. “The contract advertised is for a team to design a system to manage intelligence on market access barriers. “They will be required to act with objectivity and impartiality under the civil service code.” |