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Sir Chris Wormald has stepped down from his roles as the head of the Civil Service and cabinet secretary, less than a year after his appointment in December 2024. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed his appreciation for Sir Chris’s support over the past year. The Cabinet Office characterized the departure as a decision reached “by mutual agreement,” amid ongoing reports hinting at dissatisfaction within Downing Street regarding his performance.
In the interim period before a successor is named, Sir Chris’s duties will be handled collectively by Catherine Little, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office; Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Home Office; and James Bowler, permanent secretary at the Treasury. Sir Chris has now become the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in the office’s history. Upon his appointment, the Prime Minister had entrusted him with the task of radically reforming the British government, describing the mission as “the complete re-wiring of the British state to deliver bold and ambitious long-term reform.” However, some expressed doubts about whether a career civil servant like Sir Chris was the ideal candidate for driving such transformation.
During his tenure, Sir Chris bore ultimate responsibility for the vetting process preceding Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, despite officially taking on the cabinet secretary role shortly before the ambassador’s announcement. His departure comes in the wake of significant upheaval at the top levels of government, with other senior figures, including the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and director of communications Tim Allan, also leaving recently as Sir Keir seeks to rebuild his inner circle amid fallout from the Mandelson controversy.
Downing Street has not denied reports that Sir Chris received a severance payment around £250,000. Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell commented that such exit payments are typically determined by human resources, based on tenure, but require the Prime Minister’s approval and an assessment of value for money. Lord O’Donnell described the handling of Sir Chris’s exit as “shabby” and critiqued the role of anonymous leaks, calling them “one of the biggest failings of government.” Similarly, Dave Penman, head of the FDA Union, condemned the use of anonymous briefings against Sir Chris as “a new low for this government and its relationship with the Civil Service.” Opposition figures also criticized the situation, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accusing Sir Keir of discarding Sir Chris “to save his own skin,” while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey warned of increasingly limited options for the Prime Minister within Number 10.
The government’s preferred candidate to succeed Sir Chris on a permanent basis is Dame Antonia Romeo, who was among the four shortlisted candidates at the time of Sir Chris’s appointment. Had she been confirmed, Dame Antonia would be the first woman to lead the Civil Service. However, concerns have been raised about the vetting process. Lord McDonald, the former head of the Foreign Office, suggested in a Channel 4 News interview that any appointment must undergo a “full process” starting from scratch. This alludes to a past investigation into Dame Antonia’s alleged spending irregularities during her tenure as the government’s consul-general in New York in 2017, an inquiry led by Lord McDonald himself. The Cabinet Office responded firmly, stating there was “absolutely no basis for this criticism,” highlighting that all allegations stemmed from a long-resolved grievance dismissed as having no case to answer.
The appointment procedure will be overseen by the First Civil Service Commissioner, currently Baroness Stuart, a former Labour MP and campaigner on Brexit. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to strengthen the vetting of senior appointments following controversies surrounding Lord Mandelson’s ambassadorial position and Lord Doyle’s peerage, both criticized due to connections with convicted sex offenders. Until now, Sir Chris had been managing the government’s release of documents regarding Lord Mandelson’s appointment as required by Parliament, a process Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged should be completed before selecting his replacement through “a full new process.”
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