Sir Keir Starmer is expected to appoint the first female head of the civil service, replacing Sir Chris Wormald after only a year in the job.
Dame Antonia Romeo, the Home Office permanent secretary, is Starmer’s choice to become cabinet secretary as part of a reset caused by the Mandelson scandal.
Romeo, 51, was shortlisted for the job before Wormald was appointed but lost out in the final round of interviews with the prime minister.
However, she has impressed Starmer with her handling of the small boats crisis since taking over at the Home Office in April.
Before that she was permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, overseeing the early prisoner release scheme. She also served as the head of the trade department under the last Conservative government.
One Whitehall source said that Romeo’s appointment could be announced in the coming days if the Civil Service Commission agrees there is no need for a fresh recruitment process. The commission ruled that she was qualified for the job when she applied last year.
Of the two other candidates Starmer considered, Dame Tamara Finkelstein has left the civil service and Sir Olly Robbins, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, is seen as too closely associated with the Lord Mandelson scandal.
Romeo’s credentials
At the Times CEO Summit in 2019
MARY TURNER FOR THE TIMES
Two government sources said Starmer wanted to give Romeo the job. One said she was the outstanding candidate.
Government sources who have worked with Romeo said she would try to “completely rewire the state”. One said: “She’s the obvious and outstanding candidate for it. Wormald was appointed because he was a safe pair of hands and less of a disrupter. Romeo is the opposite and would attempt to rewire the state, which is what we now desperately need.”
Sources pointed to the internal changes she has overseen at the Home Office, where she has overhauled senior management structure and made appointments at director-general level. “She’s put very talented people in the right places and is focused very much on delivery and data,” one said.
They pointed to her appointment of talented individuals from outside government, such as Mike McCarthy from the management consultancy firm McKinsey, who was brought in as director-general of digital and innovation to modernise systems.
“She’s the kind of person who grips shit,” the source said. “She’s put in extra spending controls to stop the Home Office becoming such a money pit.”
Questions over last appointment
Sir Chis Wormald
TAYFUN SALCI
The removal of Wormald, 57, raises questions about Starmer’s judgment. A government source said the prime minister believed Wormald had to take “ultimate responsibility” for failings in the vetting process that cleared Mandelson to be the ambassador to the United States.
However, others said Starmer had been unhappy with his leadership of the civil service for some time and blamed Wormald for not pushing through the government’s agenda.
Wormald is understood to be negotiating an exit package and is in line for a payoff likely to be in the region of £250,000. One source claimed he had been “terribly treated”. It is understood he was given no indication that he was going to be replaced until he read about it in the media.
The Cabinet Office declined to comment on “speculation” about Wormald’s future.
Shortest stint in history
Wormald, who joined the civil service in 1991 and had been the permanent secretary at the education and health departments, succeeded Lord Case who was himself forced out of office by Starmer. Case got the job in 2020 when Boris Johnson forced out his predecessor, Lord Sedwill.
Wormald’s departure after 14 months will make him the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in the role’s 100-year history.
One Whitehall source questioned the wisdom of dismissing Wormald amid the wider upheaval at the centre of government. “It seems crazy when you have just lost your most senior political adviser in Downing Street to decide you’re going to get rid of the head of the civil service as well,” the source said. “It is hugely destabilising.”
When Wormald was appointed, Starmer praised his “wealth of experience”. However, government figures have expressed irritation at Wormald’s reluctance to embrace planned reform of the civil service, with some accusing him of “hand-wringing” about problems rather than coming up with solutions.