Starmer ousts cabinet secretary in clear out of top team after Mandelson scandal

Keir Starmer’s attempt to shake up his top team after the disastrous Peter Mandelson scandal began on Thursday, when he forced out his most senior civil servant with a view to replacing him with Antonia Romeo.The prime minister announced that Chris Wormald was stepping down “by mutual consent” after just over a year as cabinet secretary, with Romeo almost certain to succeed him as the first woman in the job.Starmer’s decision to oust Wormald drew ire from senior civil servants over the brutality of the move. One person described the mood as “sulphurous” over the prime minister’s apparent willingness to let senior officials go. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said the cabinet secretary had become the “latest person Keir Starmer has thrown under the bus to save his own skin”.Senior Labour figures and the former permanent secretary Simon McDonald also cautioned against an expedited process to appoint Romeo, saying due diligence must be thorough given the high turnover of staff at the heart of No 10.Whitehall sources, however, strongly defended the decision to press ahead with Romeo if the civil service commissioner approves, because she was considered an appointable candidate only just over a year ago.They said Wormald lost Starmer’s confidence over the process that led to Mandelson’s approval for the role of ambassador, and for not having been proactive enough at driving through civil service reform. He is likely to receive a significant payout, with his salary having been about £200,000 a year.His departure leaves Starmer with a severely depleted team at the top. His chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and director of communications, Tim Allan, left earlier this week in the aftermath of the Mandelson affair, which laid bare the scale of the former US ambassador’s ties to late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Starmer’s decision to replace Wormald is understood to have been made days ago, after more than six months of briefings from within No 10 that Starmer’s operation was not convinced he was right for the job.The senior official told permanent secretaries that he was standing down at 10am on Wednesday and left the Cabinet Office for the last time at the end of the day, but it took another 24 hours and more for his departure to be confirmed.“What a message this all gives to public servants, political and official,” one senior government insider said. “Keir Starmer says let’s change things, let’s be bold. But the moment it gets tough, ‘you’ll be out the door to save my skin’.“Antonia will need eyes in the back of her head to spot the knives Keir is wielding.”The Cabinet Office said a process to appoint Wormald’s successor would now take place, with the role to be split temporarily between three senior officials – Romeo, Cat Little and James Bowler.Antonia Romeo has impressed as permanent secretary at the Home Office. Photograph: Cabinet OfficeBut some Starmer allies cautioned against an expedited process. “Keir needs to wait for things to calm down before crashing into another set of bad decisions in a panicky way because he’s feeling boxed in. When you’re in a hole, stop digging,” one said.Romeo is seen as a dynamic official outside the traditional civil service mould, in contrast to Wormald who was forced out partly over concerns he was not the right person to drive reform in Whitehall.McDonald, however, said on Wednesday that “more due diligence” and a full appointment process should be run.Romeo has previously faced questions about her spending while consul general in New York in 2017, while working under McDonald at the Foreign Office. A subsequent Cabinet Office investigation cleared her of any wrongdoing. When asked about this on Channel 4, McDonald said he would like to discuss the matter with No 10 as part of its vetting process.Supporters of Romeo hit back strongly in her defence. One minister said: “For decades, our country has wanted to rip up the rulebook and do things differently. Antonia will actually do it. She’s restless, focused, creative and understands the scale of the crises this country faces – the leader our civil service needs in these times.“Frankly, I’m tired of hearing women being called ‘ambitious’ by bald men who’re past their prime. After two establishment men have been found maintaining a relationship with paedophiles, are we going to let another posse of baldies besmirch a brilliant woman who has always riled the establishment by having a bit of chutzpah?”A government source said of her time in New York: “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.”Romeo won support within the civil service for her warning to Dominic Raab when he was justice secretary about behaviour that led to his being found to have engaged in bullying conduct towards officials. She has impressed Shabana Mahmood at the Home Office.Starmer gave Wormald the job of cabinet secretary in late 2024 despite the panel having recommended another candidate, Tamara Finkelstein, who has now left the civil service.Wormald 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.”Starmer 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. I wish him the very best for the future.”No 10 has been criticised over its handling of the situation, with allies of Wormald saying he had been badly treated and learned of his fate through the media.The general secretary of the FDA union, Dave Penman, said the briefing against Wormald had been extraordinary and that it was “no way to run a country”.The former Home Office permanent secretary, Philip Rutnam, also hit out at briefings against civil servants. “The thing that really saps morale is the negative briefing about individual civil servants and the civil service as a whole,” he told Radio 4’s PM programme.“Wherever it comes from, whether it comes from disgruntled ministers or special advisers … civil servants cannot answer back, they are constitutionally bound to be accountable to ministers and good ministers deal with problems behind the scenes.“What you don’t see is briefing coming out into the media, which is deeply destabilising.”