Whitehall vetting row as Cabinet Secretary frontrunner’s past bullying probe leaked | Politics | News
Dame Antonia Romeo with King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2024 (Image: PA)
Sir Keir Starmer defended Dame Antonia Romeo, frontrunner to become the next Cabinet Secretary, after leaks revealed she faced a formal bullying and expenses probe in 2017. The Home Office permanent secretary, one of three senior officials now sharing interim Cabinet Secretary duties, was investigated in 2017 while serving as consul-general in New York.
A single formal complaint alleged bullying of staff and misuse of public money on expenses, including school fees, flights and taxis. The Cabinet Office inquiry cleared her, finding “no case to answer”. However, the BBC reported that Dame Antonia was given “tough conversations” about her leadership style in the aftermath. Sources said some aspects of her personal approach had “grated with people”.
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman yesterday described her as “an outstanding leader with a 25-year record of excellent public service, including having been appointed to three permanent secretary roles”.
They added: “One formal complaint was raised nine years ago and the allegations were dismissed on the basis that there was no case to answer.”
“Antonia Romeo’s record speaks for itself. I’m not going to get into individual HR files or reports.”
The controversy erupted as Sir Keir seeks to reset his Downing Street operation after the abrupt departures of several senior advisers.
Sir Chris Wormald became the latest senior figure to leave when he stepped down as Cabinet Secretary “by mutual consent” after only 14 months – the shortest tenure in the post’s history.
Dame Antonia is now widely expected to replace him, potentially becoming the first woman in the role. Her former boss, Lord Simon McDonald, the former Foreign Office permanent secretary, intervened dramatically on Channel 4 News.
Sir Chris Wormald resigned last week (Image: PA)
He urged the Prime Minister to “start the recruitment process from scratch” and conduct proper due diligence.
Lord Simon said: “The prime minister has recent bitter experience of doing the due diligence too late. It would be an unnecessary tragedy to repeat that mistake.”
This was an apparent reference to controversies over the appointments of Peter Mandelson and Lord Matthew Doyle, both linked to individuals with convictions for sex offences.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused No 10 of bypassing proper procedures.
She said: “The Prime Minister’s habit of bypassing proper recruitment risks leaving any appointee – no matter their record – vulnerable to claims of partiality. We need a process that is transparent, not one that appears to throw officials under a bus to suit a political reset.”
A government source hit back sharply, dismissing Lord McDonald’s intervention as “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.
“Antonia Romeo remains a highly respected permanent secretary with a 25-year record of excellent public service.”
Within Whitehall, supporters portrayed her as the radical change the civil service needs.
One senior figure said: “Romeo is the opposite of a safe pair of hands and would attempt to rewire the state, which is what we now desperately need. She is one of the few senior officials that has always fought against the ‘computer says no’ culture embedded in the British state.”
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, suggested the renewed scrutiny carried a gendered edge.
He explained: “Criticism of Antonia Romeo has a ‘whiff of misogyny’ about it. When you become a manager, when you make decisions, people don’t like you and they complain. There probably isn’t a permanent secretary who doesn’t have, at some point, complaints made against them.”
The row has exposed deep tensions at the top of Whitehall as Sir Keir attempts to stabilise his administration amid a series of damaging rows.
With Dame Antonia now carrying out interim duties alongside two other permanent secretaries, the government insists her record is unblemished.
Critics, however, say the leaks have raised fresh questions about transparency and due process in one of the most powerful unelected jobs in Britain.
