A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment when John Healey and John Denham were up against the DCLG select committee last night.
The pair denied a recent comment by Richard McCarthy, one of the most senior civil servants at the department. McCarthy (the second highest-paid man in Whitehall, incidentally) had suggested that ministers were not in agreement over Home Information Packs. Of course they insisted that was not true.
McCarthy’s comment struck me as curious. Why would a senior civil servant (they pride themselves on discretion) want to rock the boat?
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey