𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The UK’s top civil servant has quit amid Keir Starmer’s shake-up of No10. 

The Prime Minister will appoint a new Cabinet Secretary to replace Sir Chris Wormald “shortly” despite a furious Whitehall briefing battle.

No 10 have insisted his exit is “by mutual agreement” but senior officials say that he was pushed out.

His stepping down as head of the civil service comes as the Prime Minister tries to reset his Downing Street operation after controversies surrounding the appointments of Lord Peter Mandelson and Lord Matthew Doyle despite their association with sex offenders.

Sir Chris, who could receive a pay off in the region of £250,000, 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. Our country is fortunate to have such dedicated individuals devoted to public service, and I wish them every success for the future.”

His responsibilities are being shared on an interim basis with Cat Little from the Cabinet office, Antonia Romeo at the home office and James Bowler at the Treasury.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: “This is a preposterous way to handle the removal of a Cabinet Secretary, extraordinary and highly inappropriate in equal measure. Chris Wormald was the Prime Minister’s own choice for Cabinet Secretary less than 14 months ago.

‘Yet Keir Starmer is unable to explain why the man whom he told Parliament just last week would oversee the release of sensitive documents on Lord Mandelson to ensure there could be no suggestion of a ‘cover up’ has now been forced out.”

She added: “Once again, the Prime Minister’s judgment is found wanting. For a man who has played holier than thou all his life, the latest series of blunders shows someone who is at best unsuited to the role or at worst morally bankrupt.”

Alex Burghart, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “There’s no way this was an amicable agreement. The Prime Minister is blaming others to save his own skin.

“Britain isn’t being governed. There’s no Cabinet Secretary, no Chief of Staff, and no Director of Communications – all because Starmer won’t take responsibility.”

Sir Chris’s exit comes as Sir Keir has faced a Whitehall war over his decision to sack the Cabinet Secretary.

The Prime Minister is set to install Dame Antonia Romeo in the top job.

It comes after the departures of Sir Keir’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications chief Tim Allan.

Former Conservative MP Danny Kruger, who has joined the Conservatives, said: “The resignation of Sir Chris, who was lauded by the Prime Minister as the man who was going to rewire the civil service, is an open admission of defeat by Keir Starmer. The civil service will remain bloated and not fit for purpose.

“Only a Reform government will deliver root and branch change of the way this country is governed.”

A Labour MP said Sir Chris, who was only appointed in December 2024, had not been given “much of a chance”.

The MP claimed the problem at the heart of Government was not top personnel but the Prime Minister’s own “managerial style”.

“He can’t seem to work with anybody,” the source said. “The relationship with [Labour MPs] is awful and it seems to be reflected in his inner circle as well.”

The MP doubted that a new Cabinet Secretary would be able to turn operations around, saying: “I don’t think there will be any improvements because it’s still the same person at the centre of it… The serious question that has got to be asked is, why is he losing so many people?”

Rumours that the Labour leader plans to replace Sir Chris with Dame Antonia , the Home Office permanent secretary, triggered a highly unusual warning by a former top mandarin against “doing the due diligence too late”.

Dame Antonia’s former boss Lord Simon McDonald, ex-permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, said there should be a “full process” to appoint a new Cabinet Secretary and that “needs to start from scratch”.

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has accused the PM of throwing his Cabinet Secretary “under a bus”.

She said: “The Cabinet Secretary is the latest person Keir Starmer has thrown under the bus to save his own skin.”

Sir Chirs has been the shortest-serving Cabinet Secretary, stepping down by “mutual agreement” after just 14 months in the role.

In a letter to the Civil Service Commission before his leaving, Mrs Badenoch 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 the 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.

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 that 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.”

The exit of Sir Chris drew a furious response from the trade union which represents senior civil servants.

FDA General Secretary Dave Penman said: “The treatment of Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald, the most senior civil servant in the country, is a new low for this government and its relationship with the civil service.

“Days of open speculation followed by an inevitable departure. What message does this send to the rest of the civil service on how they can be expected to be treated? 

“A Government that, only last month, said that it wants its civil servants to take risks and that ministers will have their back if they do, has just undermined that message in spectacular fashion. Wormald had barely started in the Cabinet Secretary role before the anonymous briefings started to scapegoat him and undermine his authority.”