𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Keir Starmer’s spokesman has refused to say whether the UK’s top civil servant remains in his job.

Downing Street has been plunged into chaos by the failure to confirm whether Sir Chris Wormald is still in post.

Sir Chris is believed to be on his way out as head of the civil service as the Prime Minister tries to reset No10’s operation after controversies surrounding the appointments of Lord Peter Mandelson and Lord Matthew Doyle despite their association with sex offenders.

It also comes after the departures of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and communications chief Tim Allan.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said he would not comment on “speculation” that Sir Chris had been ousted.

When asked who is currently the Cabinet Secretary, he gave the same answer.

Asked if there is a Cabinet Secretary, he said, “Yes, the Cabinet Office is still being supervised by the Cabinet Secretary”.

But when asked again who that person is, he refused to give a name.

Sir Chris, who is head of the Civil Service, is understood to be negotiating an exit package from the job to which he was appointed by the PM in December 2024.

The government’s favoured successor is Dame Antonia Romeo, the top civil servant at the Home Office, who was on the four-person shortlist for the role when Sir Chris was appointed.

Tory leader Mrs Badenoch on Thursday seized on Lord McDonald’s intervention as she criticised the Prime Minister’s expected move.

In a letter to the Civil Service Commission, she said: “It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Cabinet Secretary is simply the latest person to be thrown under a bus by this Prime Minister.

“It is all the more concerning to be changing Cabinet Secretary in the midst of the ongoing scandal over the appointment of Lord Mandelson and his conduct in office.”

Mrs Badenoch urged to commission to advise Sir Keir to delay the sacking until the disclosure of Government files relating to Lord Mandelson – overseen by the Cabinet Secretary – is complete.

The probe led by the top civil servant into the former UK ambassador to Washington’s contact with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein while he was a Government minister should also be concluded first, she said.

Mrs Badenoch wrote: “Changing the Cabinet Secretary in the middle of this scandal – or more precisely forcing out the incumbent without any clear process – would be an extraordinary thing to do.

“Any individual appointed in the circumstances, without a full process to point to and in the midst of managing a scandal, could find it difficult to demonstrate impartiality.”

She said Sir Keir must also “be advised to conduct a full new process for this appointment, given the circumstances around the likely departure of Sir Chris and given the concerns raised by the former Foreign Office mandarin, Lord McDonald”.

Lord McDonald told Channel 4 News on Wednesday evening: “This is the most important job in the civil service. It can’t be chosen on the fly.”

He added: “If the Prime Minister wants a new Cabinet Secretary, he needs to start from scratch.

“Due diligence is vitally important.

“The Prime Minister has recent bitter experience of doing the due diligence too late.

“It would be an unnecessary tragedy to repeat that mistake.”

He said he would prefer to go into detail about this with No 10, and that he had “been in touch today and not had a response”.

Dame Antonia was reportedly investigated when she was Britain’s consul general in New York in 2017 over her expenses and claims of bullying, but was later cleared by the Cabinet Office.

A Government source said there was “absolutely no basis for this criticism”.

They said: ⁠”Antonia Romeo is a highly respected permanent secretary with a 25-year record of excellent public service.

A second Government source went further, saying: “This is a desperate attempt from a senior male official whose time has passed but spent their career getting Britain into the mess it finds itself in today.

“A computer says no culture, that cannot challenge the status quo.

“Antonia is a disrupter. She isn’t settled with the status quo.

“She is one of the few senior officials who has always fought against the computer, says no culture embedded in the British state.

“In light of the crisis we face as a country, Antonia is exactly the leadership the civil service need to embrace systemic reform to rewire the state, take on vested interest and deliver for the British people.

“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.”