Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A raft of former top civil servants have urged Sir Keir Starmer to carry out a full process to appoint the next cabinet secretary, as the prime minister forced out Sir Chris Wormald on Thursday just 14 months after hiring him.
Starmer has faced criticism for his treatment of the head of the civil service, with some officials saying that persistent briefings about Wormald’s performance have undermined the role.
Several ex-mandarins told the FT that a full process must take place before Starmer selects Wormald’s successor, rather than a swift appointment of the frontrunner Antonia Romeo, the Home Office permanent secretary.
“The choice of his successor should be handled with proper process and due diligence,” said Lord Richard Wilson, cabinet secretary between 1998 and 2002.
Wilson said that first civil service commissioner Baroness Gisela Stuart, who oversees appointments, “should be brought in and asked to handle it and should be given however long it takes to do it properly”.
He added: “Recent events show the high price which can result from cutting corners.”
Wormald’s departure has been expected for days and was finally announced on Thursday. The Cabinet Office said that he had stepped down with immediate effect “by mutual agreement” with Starmer.
“The prime minister will appoint a new cabinet secretary shortly. The appointment process will be agreed by the first civil service commissioner,” the Cabinet Office said.
The prime minister has been rocked by a series of resignations from his core team in the past week, following a scandal over Starmer’s decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US despite knowing about his links to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Government figures have variously criticised Wormald’s record on policy delivery and government modernisation, as well as his role in overseeing Mandelson’s vetting for the ambassador role.
Wormald, who is now the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in the history of the job, was appointed in early December 2024, a few weeks before Starmer announced Mandelson as ambassador.
Other officials dispute the criticism of the cabinet secretary, arguing he has been unfairly targeted by vicious political briefings.
Wormald’s responsibilities will be shared for an “interim period” by three permanent secretaries: Catherine Little from the Cabinet Office, Romeo from the Home Office and James Bowler from the Treasury.
Romeo is in pole position to succeed Wormald, having been one of the runners-up of the initial contest in which he was appointed.
However, briefings talking up her prospects of being appointed without a full process or fresh due diligence have triggered alarm among senior ex-mandarins, including a former cabinet secretary.
The process for replacing Wormald is still being debated, according to people familiar with the matter. Starmer has a high degree of discretion to make his selection but must seek approval from Stuart.
The Civil Service Commission was contacted for comment.
Stuart is facing calls to slow the process and ensure that the government does not face a third scandal over the vetting for a key appointment.
As well as the uproar over Mandelson’s appointment, Starmer has been criticised for giving a peerage to his former aide, Lord Matthew Doyle, despite Doyle campaigning for a councillor charged over possessing indecent images of children.
One former permanent secretary said that Stuart “needs to take a clear view”, warning: “Otherwise the whole senior public appointments process risks becoming even more debased.”
Another ex-permanent secretary said that if Starmer fails to conduct a full process, “he will be causing a problem for himself and seriously undermining the successful candidate”.
The comments echo concerns aired by Lord Simon McDonald, former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, on Wednesday, that a failure to conduct proper due diligence would be an “unnecessary tragedy”.
McDonald told Channel 4 that if Romeo was appointed, it would show “the due diligence still has some way to go”. A Whitehall official dismissed his comments as a “desperate attempt from a senior male official whose time has passed”.
Some Labour officials believe that Starmer is making poor decisions in haste this week. One said they hoped Downing Street would seize the opportunity to “take a breath and reflect”.
One senior Labour MP said there was a “real concern” about forcing out Wormald. “Whatever people think about him in the job the PM did appoint him and I don’t think he understands the impact on morale of kicking him out”.
However, a third former permanent secretary said it was inevitable Wormald had to go if the prime minister wanted a change as “you can’t do the job if your minister doesn’t have confidence in you”.
A fourth ex-permanent secretary said it was “nonsense” to demand a full process to appoint the next cabinet secretary, accusing former colleagues of trying to block Romeo.
“She was deemed appointable 14 months ago and would have undergone extensive vetting to be appointed permanent secretary at the Home Office — it’s entirely reasonable for the prime minister to say there doesn’t need to be any further process,” they said.