GORDON BROWN is fighting attempts by Whitehall to press the claims of the head of the Home Office to become his Permanent Secretary at the Treasury.

Sir John Gieve, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, is the subject of a bizarre Whitehall tug-of-war, with some of the leading mandarins and ministers suggesting that he has earned the right to the Treasury’s top job, but with the Chancellor favouring the case of Nicholas Macpherson, one of his existing top officials.

Tony Blair will have to make the ultimate choice. Although Mr Brown would normally be expected to get his way, Mr Blair has already appointed Sir Gus O’Donnell, Mr Brown’s former top official, as Cabinet Secretary and some ministers are hoping that he will assert himself over the appointment of Sir John, who formerly held top posts at the Treasury.

The complication is that Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, is believed to be keen for Sir David Normington, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Education and Skills, who served Mr Clarke in his last Cabinet post, to move to the Home Office.

Mr Brown is letting it be known that he has nothing against Sir John but would prefer an internal candidate to take over at this stage.

Mr Macpherson is managing director of the Treasury’s budget and public finances directorate. He is highly regarded by Treasury ministers and served both Mr Brown and his Conservative predecessor Kenneth Clarke as principal private secretary. He has extensive experience of working with other Whitehall departments from running the public services directorate and has good City links.

Sir John came in for criticism from some of his fellow permanent secretaries at the time David Blunkett’s affair with Kimberly Quinn became public. This was particularly so after John Toker, the head of news at the department, and Jonathan Sedgwick, Mr Blunkett’s principal private secretary, met Mrs Quinn at the offices of her lawyer as a “personal favour”. The two men agreed to meet Mrs Quinn in their lunch hour two days before the News of the World broke the story of theirs relationship.

The time was chosen to avoid allegations that Mr Blunkett’s officials were breaching the civil service code of conduct, which specifies they should administer public, not private — services.

Mr Clarke got on well with Sir David in his previous job. In February 2003, two new permanent secretaries were appointed at the Home Office after concern in Whitehall at the department's lacklustre performance. Martin Narey and Leigh Lewis were drafted into the department after demands from Mr Blair for a dramatic improvement in performance and in the delivery of Government targets.

Mr Narey, former head of the prison service, and Leigh Lewis were appointed because of their reputations for running large organisations. Mr Narey's future is also now in doubt amidst growing criticism in Whitehall at the difficulties over the creation of the National Offender Management Service, the merged prisons and probation service.

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