Steve Baker makes House of Commons apology over 'civil service anti-Brexit conspiracy' claims

After furious backlash, Brexit minister admits he 'should have dismissed or corrected' false reports about alleged Treasury plot to keep UK in customs union

Steve Baker has apologised for refusing to dismiss suggestions that civil servants are conspiring to undermine Brexit.

The Brexit minister told MPs he wanted to “correct the record” after being widely criticised for comments on Thursday in which he claimed he was aware of an allegation that Treasury officials deliberately produced a skewed analysis in order to influence policy in favour of the UK staying in the EU customs union.

Giving a statement in the House of Commons before the start of parliamentary business on Friday, Mr Baker said he “should have dismissed or corrected” the rumours.

He added: “Yesterday I answered a question based on my honest recollection of a conversation.

"As I explained yesterday, I considered what I understood to be the suggestion being put to me as implausible because of the long standing and well regarded impartiality of the civil service.”

The row erupted after Jacob Rees-Mogg asked Mr Baker in the Commons whether he was familiar with a claim that officials had “deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union were bad and that officials intended to use this to influence policy”.

Mr Rees-Mogg, an influential pro-Brexit Tory backbencher, said the allegation had come from Charles Grant, head of the influential Centre for European Reform think tank.

Mr Baker replied that Mr Rees-Mogg’s account was correct and that he was familiar with the “extraordinary allegation”, adding: “At the time, I considered it implausible because my direct experience is that civil servants are extraordinarily careful to uphold the impartiality of the civil service.”

However, Mr Grant immediately denied having suggested there was a deliberate civil service plot to undermine Brexit or influence policy – a claim later confirmed by the release of an audio recording of the event, at last year’s Conservative conference, at which he is said to have made the remark.

After a backlash over his comments, Mr Baker admitted on Friday that he was wrong to give credence to the allegation and mistaken in his recollection of what Mr Grant had said.

He said: "The audio of that conversation is now available and I am glad the record stands corrected.

“In the context of that audio, I accept I should have corrected or dismissed the premise of my honourable friend's question.

"I have apologised to Mr Charles Grant, who is an honest and trustworthy man.

"As I've put on record many times, I have the highest regard for our hard-working civil servants.

"I'm grateful for this early opportunity to correct the record and I apologise to the House."

He had earlier apologised on Twitter.

Downing Street had come under pressure to sack Mr Baker but stood by him, initially insisting there was no reason to question his account and, once the audio recording made clear he was wrong, saying he had made a “genuine mistake”.

Speaking during her visit to China, Theresa May confirmed she will not be sacking the Brexit minister.

She told Channel 5 News: “The ministerial code says that the minister should take the earliest opportunity to amend the record that has given to Parliament and apologise to Parliament. He will do that.

“What I understand the minister did was to reflect what he thought somebody else had said at a meeting. He has now recalled that was not right, he is going to apologise, he is going to ensure that the record in Hansard is correct so that Parliament is not misled when that record is read in the future.

“That’s what the ministerial code asks him to do and that is what he will be doing.”

Earlier in the week Mr Baker provoked another controversy by suggesting forecasts produced by civil servants were “always wrong”.