Sir Chris Wormald forced out as head of Civil Service
27 minutes agoBecky MortonPolitical reporter
PA MediaSir Chris Wormald has been forced out as the head of the Civil Service and cabinet secretary.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who only appointed Sir Chris to the role in December 2024, said he was grateful “for the support he has given me over the past year”.
The Cabinet Office said the move was “by mutual agreement” but it follows months of negative media reports suggesting Downing Street was unhappy with his performance.
His responsibilities will be shared by Catherine Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Home Office and James Bowler, permanent secretary at the Treasury, until a replacement is appointed “shortly”.
It makes Sir Chris the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in the history of the post.
At the time of his appointment, the PM said Sir Chris would be tasked with “the complete re-wiring of the British state to deliver bold and ambitious long-term reform”.
However, as a career civil servant some questioned whether he was the best person to reform the Civil Service.
Sir Chris also had ultimate responsibility for the due diligence checks carried out before Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, although he took up the role only a few days before the appointment was formally announced.
He is the third senior official to leave the government operation in a matter of days, following Sir Keir’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his director of communications Tim Allan, as the PM seeks to reset his team after the Mandelson scandal.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Sir Chris was “the latest person Keir Starmer has thrown under the bus to save his own skin”.
Dave Penman, head of the FDA Union, which represents senior civil servants, said the treatment of Sir Chris was “a new low for this government and its relationship with the Civil Service”, following “days of open speculation”.
“Wormald had barely started in the cabinet secretary role before the anonymous briefings started to scapegoat him and undermine his authority,” he added.
In a statement, Sir Keir said: “I am very grateful to Sir Chris for his long and distinguished career of public service, spanning more than 35 years, and for the support that he has given me over the past year.
“I have agreed with him that he will step down as cabinet secretary today.”
Sir Chris said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as a civil servant for the past 35 years, and a particular distinction to lead the service as cabinet secretary.
“I want to place on record my sincere thanks to the extraordinary civil servants, public servants, ministers, and advisers I have worked with.”
Getty ImagesThe government’s favoured successor is Dame Antonia, who was on the four-person shortlist for the role when Sir Chris was appointed.
If given the job, she would be the first female head of the Civil Service.
This would help to counter claims of a “boys’ club” in Downing Street responsible for negative briefings to the media about women.
However, on Wednesday evening Lord McDonald, the former head of the Foreign Office, told Channel 4 News that if this was the case then “in my view, the due diligence has some way still to go”.
He called for a “full process” to appoint a new cabinet secretary that “starts from scratch”.
This has been interpreted as a reference to an investigation Dame Antonia faced over allegations about her spending in 2017 when she was the government’s consul-general in New York, and Lord McDonald was her boss.
In response to Lord McDonald’s interview, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “There is absolutely no basis for this criticism.
”Antonia Romeo is a highly respected permanent secretary with a 25-year record of excellent public service.
“The allegations all come from a single grievance made some time ago by a former employee. All the allegations were dismissed on the basis there was no case to answer.”
The Cabinet Office said the appointment process would be agreed by the First Civil Service Commissioner, who is currently Baroness Stuart, former Labour MP and Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart.
Sir Keir has promised to tighten up vetting for senior roles, after the appointments of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador and Lord Doyle as a peer, despite their links to convicted sex offenders.
As cabinet secretary, Sir Chris had been overseeing the government’s release of documents demanded by Parliament about Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
Badenoch had called for Sir Chris to be kept in the role until this process was complete and for a “full new process” to select his replacement.
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