Before becoming prime minister, Truss repeatedly railed against what she called “Treasury orthodoxy”, particularly predictions that her plan to make large and unfunded tax cuts could raise inflation and raise interest rates. It is understood that Scholar, who worked closely with David Cameron and Gordon Brown before taking the top Treasury post in 2016, was told he was going on Tuesday following the appointment of Kwasi Kwarteng as Truss’ chancellor. The news was confirmed on Thursday with a brief announcement from the Ministry of Finance. He said: “The chancellor has asked the cabinet secretary to start the process of recruiting a new permanent secretary to the Treasury to succeed Tom Scholar.” Beth Russell, director-general of tax and welfare, and Cat Little, director-general of public expenditure, will lead the department as acting permanent secretaries in the interim. Scholar said Kwarteng had decided it was time for “new leadership”. He wished the department “all the best for the next few moments”, adding that he would be “cheering from the sidelines”. It seems likely that Kwarteng and Truss will seek a top official more amenable to their plan to try to boost economic growth by aggressively cutting taxes, with the intention that higher growth will then boost government coffers. This has caused skepticism among economists, with the perception that Treasury officials may hold a similar view. Scholar’s departure will leave Whitehall without a highly experienced voice who had worked with Cameron as his chief adviser on the European Union. When he took over the Treasury, he replaced Nicholas Macpherson, who had spent 11 years in the job under three chancellors. In a tweet, Macpherson called Scholar “the best public servant of his generation,” adding: “Firing him makes no sense. His experience would be invaluable in the coming months as government policy puts enormous upward pressure on the cost of funding. As Gordon Brown used to say: “They don’t think.” Tom Scholar is the best public servant of his generation. Firing him makes no sense. His experience would be invaluable in the coming months as government policy puts enormous upward pressure on the cost of funding. As Gordon Brown used to say “they don’t think”. — Nick Macpherson (@nickmacpherson2) September 8, 2022 Kwarteng would be Scholar’s sixth chancellor: he worked briefly with George Osborne, then Philip Hammond, Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak and then, very shortly, Nadhim Zahawi. The son of Sir Michael Scholar, the former Whitehall permanent secretary, Scholar was among a group of Treasury officials whose careers were nurtured in their 30s by Brown while he was chancellor and then prime minister. He served as Brown’s principal private secretary before moving to Washington as the UK representative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He then worked as Brown’s chief of staff and returned to a senior position at the Treasury Department at the height of the banking crisis. In 2013, Scholar led a task force of top UK civil servants sent to Cyprus to advise the stricken island on how to handle its financial crisis.
