Brexit department will only be given 32 senior civil servants

Embarrassingly for Brexit Secretary David Davis, Boris Johnson wields a team nearly eight times bigger.

Remainers on the night of the referendum (REUTERS)

The team of senior civil servants posted to the Government’s new Brexit department will be dwarfed by those controlled by other cabinet ministers in Whitehall, it has emerged.

Even the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which only recently was tipped for closure, will have a bigger top team when the new Brexit department is fully up and running.

Embarrassingly for Brexit Secretary David Davis, his rival at the Foreign Office, Boris Johnson, wields a team nearly eight times bigger.

It comes after Mr Davis had suggested his department would have 200 staff in total and skim off the best people from other Whitehall fiefdoms.

Documents released by the newly formed Department for Exiting the European Union show it will be run by a team of 32 senior civil servants.

Mr Davis’ Permanent Secretary will be Oliver Robbins, who was pinched from the Home Office where he had responsibility for immigration and free movement policy, and oversight of the borders, immigration and citizenship system.

Director General Sarah Healey was taken from the DCMS, though she has had spells at the Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Education.

DCMS, where Karen Bradley recently won her first cabinet post, has a team of 46 senior civil servants, while the Treasury has just under 100.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a top team of around 382, though many are diplomats.

The brewing turf war between Mr Davis, Mr Johnson and Liam Fox at the Department for International Trade is set to become an on-going feature of Theresa May’s administration.

The Prime Minister had to tell squabbling ministers to get on with their jobs after it emerged Dr Fox sent Mr Johnson a letter effectively calling for the Foreign Office to be broken up.

Dr Fox had suggested that the UK would secure better international trade if he annexed responsibility for future trade diplomacy from Mr Johnson.

Whitehall sources said the Prime Minister was "unimpressed with this sort of carrying on".