Britain’s two most powerful civil servants were today accused of having ‘prostituted your high office’ after writing an article about Margaret Thatcher. Labour MP Paul Flynn launched a lengthy attack against Sir Jeremy Heywood  and Sir Bob Kerslake, before storming out of a Commons committee. The mandarins had praised the Iron Lady as a ‘kind and considerate boss’ who would make shepherd’s pie for staff when working late in Downing Street. Scroll down for video . Head of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake (left) and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood wrote the article on Margaret Thatcher despite having never worked with her . Labour MP Paul Flynn said the positive article about Lady Thatcher's relationship with civil servants breached impartiality rules . Sir Jeremy, the Cabinet Secretary, and Sir Bob, the head of the civil service, were forced to deny being pressured into writing the piece by Tory strategists as they were accused of breaching rules on impartiality for Whitehall staff. The two men were giving evidence to the Public Administration Select Committee. Civil servants are supposed to remain impartial because they have to work with all political parties if they win a general elections. Mr Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, began the session with a 10 minute attack on the article. He said: ‘The main controversy going on in the country may have passed you by is on the verdict on Margaret Thatcher’s period in government, this is something which divides this country, it’s the hottest political issue of the moment. Margaret Thatcher, pictured in Number 10 in 1987, used to make shepherd's pie for staff if working late . ‘You penned an article that was . entirely sycophantic, no kind of criticism whatsoever. This is not what . civil servants traditionally should do.’ Sir Jeremy refused to apologise for . the article, insisting it was ‘about the civil service relationship with . Margaret Thatcher as a person, as a human being’. Sir Bob added: ‘The article is not intended to be a comment on her policies, critical or otherwise.’ Labour’s Kelvin Hopkins also . criticised the article while committee chairman Bernard Jenkin, a Tory . MP, questioned whether they ‘really think this was wise to enter this . controversy?’ Despite attempts to move on, Mr Flynn . returned to the issue. He told the pair: ‘I’m going to leave the . meeting, not entirely for this reason but I think there is no point in . continuing unless we can press this issue to a conclusion. ‘I believe what’s happened is breach of all the traditions of the civil servants. I believe you have prostituted your high office and deserted your political neutrality. ‘I believe you have both displayed disgracefully,’ he added, before walking out. The article, written for the Daily Telegraph, triggered a political storm in Whitehall after it hailed the ‘indelible impression’ Lady Thatcher  left on the Civil Service. She left the ‘landscape transformed and the Civil Service modernised’, they said. The Whitehall mandarins refused to apologise for the article, insisting they were not asked to write it by anyone in the Tory party . It went on: ‘Alongside radical tax reforms, the abandonment of exchange controls and prices and incomes policies, the introduction of Right to Buy, a major overhaul of industrial relations law and the world's first privatisation programme, Margaret Thatcher also led a significant programme of Civil Service reform. ‘Her infamous working hours allowed the prime minister to consume vast quantities of briefings and from her No 10 flat she would nourish her civil servants with home–cooked shepherd's pie whenever they were working late. ‘To the country she was an Iron Lady, to those who worked with her she was a kind and considerate boss.’
Paul Flynn launches 10-minute assault on Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service .
Sir Jeremy Heywood and Sir Bob Kerslake deny breaching impartiality .
Article praised the Iron Lady as a 'kind and considerate boss'
Revealed she made shepherd's pie for staff working late .
Britain’s two most powerful civil servants were today accused of having ‘prostituted your high office’ after writing an article about Margaret Thatcher. Labour MP Paul Flynn launched a lengthy attack against Sir Jeremy Heywood  and Sir Bob Kerslake, before storming out of a Commons committee. The mandarins had praised the Iron Lady as a ‘kind and considerate boss’ who would make shepherd’s pie for staff when working late in Downing Street. Scroll down for video . Head of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake (left) and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood wrote the article on Margaret Thatcher despite having never worked with her . Labour MP Paul Flynn said the positive article about Lady Thatcher's relationship with civil servants breached impartiality rules . Sir Jeremy, the Cabinet Secretary, and Sir Bob, the head of the civil service, were forced to deny being pressured into writing the piece by Tory strategists as they were accused of breaching rules on impartiality for Whitehall staff. The two men were giving evidence to the Public Administration Select Committee. Civil servants are supposed to remain impartial because they have to work with all political parties if they win a general elections. Mr Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, began the session with a 10 minute attack on the article. He said: ‘The main controversy going on in the country may have passed you by is on the verdict on Margaret Thatcher’s period in government, this is something which divides this country, it’s the hottest political issue of the moment. Margaret Thatcher, pictured in Number 10 in 1987, used to make shepherd's pie for staff if working late . ‘You penned an article that was . entirely sycophantic, no kind of criticism whatsoever. This is not what . civil servants traditionally should do.’ Sir Jeremy refused to apologise for . the article, insisting it was ‘about the civil service relationship with . Margaret Thatcher as a person, as a human being’. Sir Bob added: ‘The article is not intended to be a comment on her policies, critical or otherwise.’ Labour’s Kelvin Hopkins also . criticised the article while committee chairman Bernard Jenkin, a Tory . MP, questioned whether they ‘really think this was wise to enter this . controversy?’ Despite attempts to move on, Mr Flynn . returned to the issue. He told the pair: ‘I’m going to leave the . meeting, not entirely for this reason but I think there is no point in . continuing unless we can press this issue to a conclusion. ‘I believe what’s happened is breach of all the traditions of the civil servants. I believe you have prostituted your high office and deserted your political neutrality. ‘I believe you have both displayed disgracefully,’ he added, before walking out. The article, written for the Daily Telegraph, triggered a political storm in Whitehall after it hailed the ‘indelible impression’ Lady Thatcher  left on the Civil Service. She left the ‘landscape transformed and the Civil Service modernised’, they said. The Whitehall mandarins refused to apologise for the article, insisting they were not asked to write it by anyone in the Tory party . It went on: ‘Alongside radical tax reforms, the abandonment of exchange controls and prices and incomes policies, the introduction of Right to Buy, a major overhaul of industrial relations law and the world's first privatisation programme, Margaret Thatcher also led a significant programme of Civil Service reform. ‘Her infamous working hours allowed the prime minister to consume vast quantities of briefings and from her No 10 flat she would nourish her civil servants with home–cooked shepherd's pie whenever they were working late. ‘To the country she was an Iron Lady, to those who worked with her she was a kind and considerate boss.’
committee. The mandarins had praised the Iron Lady as a ‘kind and considerate boss’ who would make shepherd’s pie for staff when working late of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake (left) and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood wrote the Secretary, and Sir Bob, the head of the civil