Sir David Sterling urges politicians to challenge comments about nationalists

Sir David Sterling retired as head of the NI Civil Service in August 2020

The former head of Northern Ireland's civil service has urged politicians to stand up against comments about nationalists in the service.

Sir David Sterling was referring to recent statements on blogs and social media about the perception of some nationalists.

The posts claimed that "nationalist civil servants" may be engaged in a "constitutional coup" by not acting on directions from the Agriculture minister to halt Irish Sea border checks.

Sir David told BBC's TalkBack radio programme that he was "appalled" by such comments.

"I find this very disturbing and very dangerous," he said.

"It's a slur on the integrity of the civil service as a whole, and I find it, to be blunt, quite offensive."

He added that politicians should not allow such claims to go unchallenged.

"My experience is that the civil service may not always get it right, but my experience is that ministers are generally very content with the support and advice they get from their civil servants.

"And I think it would be helpful if political leaders could distance themselves from this type of thing."

'Integrity, impartiality, objectivity'

Sir David pointed to the record of the civil service during the troubles as evidence of its integrity and impartiality.

"I worked through some very tense and difficult times and on all those occasions I was working with colleagues drawn from all sections of our society, who put their own personal beliefs and opinions at the door whenever they came into work," he said.

Former Labour politician Kate Hoey wrote about an "elite nationalist network" among professionals

"One of the things that has held this society together over the last 40 or more years, has been the fact that the civil service has always been true to its core values of honesty, integrity, impartiality, and objectivity, and anybody to suggest otherwise is just plain wrong."

He said there was no evidence to support any suggestion that the civil service "acts other than with integrity on all occasions".

"We know from our history where labelling can take things and I would just ask all those who are engaged in this to desist, " he said.

Previously, the former Labour MP Kate Hoey wrote about what she called an "elite nationalist network".

In a foreword to a policy document from Unionist Voice Policy Studies she wrote: "There are very justified concerns that many professional vocations have become dominated by those of a nationalist persuasion, and this positioning of activists is then used to exert influence of those in power."