Jeremy Heywood was lauded as âthe greatest public servant of our timeâ. Did his veneration of the private sector lead him astray?
Jeremy Heywood (right) with the then prime minister, David Cameron, in 2012. Heywood was cabinet secretary to four UK prime ministers. Photograph: Tom Stoddart Archive/Getty Images
Jeremy Heywood (right) with the then prime minister, David Cameron, in 2012. Heywood was cabinet secretary to four UK prime ministers. Photograph: Tom Stoddart Archive/Getty Images
Fri 23 Apr 2021 01.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 23 Apr 2021 02.28 EDT
Jeremy Heywood was always a bit of a mystery. Even by the opaque standards of the British state, the motivations of the late cabinet secretary and the enormous power he wielded in Whitehall â from 1997 until shortly before his premature death in 2018 â are hard to explain completely. For four successive prime ministers, he was a fixer, confidant, crisis manager, peacemaker, policy assessor and key contact wi
The Times Diary: Civil servant s career of note | News
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The Times Diary: Civil servant s career of note | News
thetimes.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thetimes.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The events of September 1992 has been documented by the late Jeremy Heywood, who served as the Chancellor s principal private secretary from 1991 to 1997.
Although he passed away in October 2018, his wife Suzanne Heywood has recently published a record of his career in the book: What Does Jeremy Think? Jeremy Heywood and the Making of Modern Britain .
The book details the cataclysmic effect of comments made by Helmut Schlesinger, the head of Bundesbank, to the press the day before Black Wednesday crippled the UK economy.
From the third quarter of 1992, the UK economy started to falter and required Europe to lower its interest rates to help prevent the economy from free falling.
The ERM started to become problematic for the UK in 1992, as Britain required Europe to lower its interest rates to help prevent the economy from free falling.
However, Germany s Bundesbank refused, prompting the Chancellor, Norman Lamont, to urge Mrs Thatcher s successor to pull out of the mechanism.
However Mr Major, a pro-European, was firmly against severing ties with the bloc, despite several pleas from the Treasury.
This exchange has been documented by the late Jeremy Heywood, who served as the Chancellor s principal private secretary from 1991 to 1997.
The EU set the UK an economic trap with one of its currency mechanisms, it is claimed (Image: Getty)