Ex-cabinet secretary condemns PM’s treatment of Wormald as ‘shabby’ and says he must ‘get a grip’ on ‘disastrous’ aides<\/p>\n
Good morning. Keir Starmer is heading off to the Munich Security Conference today, where he will no doubt be glad to be able to put UK domestic politics behind him for a bit. Patrick Wintour has a good article here about what is on the agenda.<\/p>\n
But, as Starmer gets ready to leave, he is still facing criticism over his decision to defenestrate the cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald. Here is our overnight story by Rowena Mason and Pippar Crerar.<\/p>\n
It is not unusual for prime ministers to want to change people at the top of the civil service, and to replace them with individuals with whom they can establish a better working relationship. But there is no precedent for a PM ousting a cabinet secretary they personally appointed just over a year previously.<\/p>\n
Gus O\u2019Donnell, who was cabinet secretary for six years under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, was on the Today programme this morning and he said that the treatment of Wormald had been \u201cshabby\u201d. He said:<\/p>\n
Where it shabby is the fact that we\u2019ve got to this place and that they have briefed anonymously against the cabinet secretary, saying it\u2019s not working.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been doing this for a long time. This is a process that this government, I\u2019m afraid, [it\u2019s] one of their biggest failings. You\u2019ve seen it right from the start with Sue Gray, briefings against her, all the rest of it. This is the fundamental problem.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell blamed the PM\u2019s special advisers (or spads, as they are called) for the negative briefings. And he criticised Starmer for failing to stop this.<\/p>\n
Really good spads are really useful. I\u2019ve worked with Ed Balls, Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell. If they\u2019re good, they understand their subject, they can make the the relationship between ministers and civil servants work a lot better.<\/p>\n
Bad special advisers turn out to be second rate PR people. [They] can be disastrous. You saw in the run up to the budget; it was a complete omnishambles from a comms point of view, whatever you think about the economics of it.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s where the prime minister must take responsibility and get a grip.<\/p>\n
Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n
10am: The high court delivers its judgment on a claim that the Home Office\u2019s decision to proscribe Palestine Action was unlawful.<\/p>\n
Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is on a visit in Scotland.<\/p>\n
Noon: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, attends the Attitude 101 awards celebrating trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n
Afternoon: Keir Starmer arrives at the Munich Security Conference.<\/p>\n
And Kemi Badenoch is in Llandudno, where she is speaking at the Welsh Conservative conference.<\/p>\n
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X<\/a>, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.35 EST<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n Starmer condemns Reform UK’s ‘racist rhetoric’<\/p>\n Yesterday the Labour party accused Nigel Farage of tolerating \u201cflagrant racism\u201d in Reform UK <\/a>after Sarah Pochin claimed that she was right to complain about the number of black and Asian people in TV adverts.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer has now made the same point in his own words. Commenting on Sarah Pochin\u2019s latest intervention, he told the Daily Mirror<\/a>:<\/p>\n Yet again our country\u2019s discourse is being poisoned and polluted by the racist rhetoric coming from Reform – pitting communities against one another and sowing division to suit their own ends. They should be apologising, not doubling down.<\/p>\n You only have to look at the toxicity flowing from their candidate for Gorton and Denton to know what they are about – dangerous ideas that pull at the fabric of who we are in Britain. They don\u2019t have solutions to the challenges we face as a country. All they can offer is a smokescreen of hate and division.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The Manchester Evening News has now posted a video of its Gorton and Denton byelection hustings held yesterday on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n Here is Hannah Al-Othman\u2019s report from the debate.<\/p>\n And this is how it starts.<\/p>\n Labour and Reform candidates came head-to-head at a hustings in Greater Manchester<\/a> for the Gorton and Denton byelection, with Labour\u2019s candidate saying women in the constituency were scared to leave the house because of her rival\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n Angeliki Stogia<\/a> hit out at Reform\u2019s Matt Goodwin<\/a>, who arrived at the offices of the Manchester Evening News, which was hosting the event, with security.<\/p>\n Goodwin responded by saying he had had \u201cvery real threats\u201d on his life and suggested women were instead afraid because Labour<\/a> was \u201crunning a policy of open borders, which is putting women and girls at risk\u201d.<\/p>\n Stogia said: \u201cMatthew, how can you be sat here with a couple of security guys following you around? When I, just this morning, was with a group of interfaith women representing our community, who told me that our women in this constituency, they\u2019re scared to leave their house because of the rhetoric that you have been peddling.\u201d<\/p>\n It was the fiercest clash at the event which was attended by people living and working in the constituency, including doctors, college students and representatives from community and campaign groups.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule<\/p>\n The co-founder of Palestine Action<\/a> has won a legal challenge to the home secretary\u2019s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, Haroon Siddique reports.<\/p>\n Here is the press summary<\/a> of the judgment.<\/p>\n And here is the ruling in full<\/a>.<\/p>\n Taz Ali has more coverage on our separate live blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n At the high court we are about to get the judgment in the case arguing that the government\u2019s decision to proscribe Palestine Action was unlawful. Taz Ali is covering this on a separate live blog.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.20 EST<\/p>\n O’Donnell suggests Antonia Romeo would be ‘excellent’ candidate to be next cabinet secretary<\/p>\n In his Today interview Gus O\u2019Donnell was also asked about the claim by Simon McDonald, the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, that Antonia Romeo should not be appointed as the next cabinet secretary without more \u201cdue diligence\u201d. McDonald made this claim in an interview on Wednesday, in a reference to a complaint about Romeo from when she worked for the Foreign Office in 2017.<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell said that he could not comment on individual candidates because he was on the panel that shortlisted candidates when Wormald was appointed. Romeo was one of the four candidates on the shortlist. O\u2019Donnell said that the four people shortlisted were \u201call excellent candidates, in my view\u201d.<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell said he did not know what process would be used to select a cabinet secretary this time. But, asked if he thought that the selection process would have to be started again from scratch, with the appointment of a new selection panel, O\u2019Donnell indicated that he did not think that would be necessary.<\/p>\n Antonia Romeo (right), permanent secretary at the Home Office, with Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, at a Home Office event last year. Photograph: Andy Taylor\/Home OfficeShare<\/a>Former cabinet secretary Gus O’Donnell defends No 10’s use of ministerial direction to approve Wormald’s pay-off<\/p>\n In a story<\/a> in the Times today Oliver Wright and Steven Swinford say that \u201cgovernment officials refused to sign off on Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s decision to sack Britain\u2019s most senior civil servant because it would cost the taxpayer a quarter of a million pounds that could not be justified\u201d. They report:<\/p>\n In an unprecedented move, senior civil servants told Starmer that ministers would have to issue a formal \u201cdirection\u201d to officials to make the redundancy payment to the Sir Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, because there were no clear and compelling reasons why he should be sacked.<\/p>\n On the Today programme, it was put to Gus O\u2019Donnell, the former cabinet secretary (see 9.15am<\/a>) that this was a sign of the fact that civil servants did not approve of the decision to get rid of Wormald. O\u2019Donnell did not accept that.<\/p>\n He said the PM has \u201cevery right\u201d to replace the cabinet secretary. That is allowed under the cabinet manual, he said.<\/p>\n And he said that Wormald\u2019s pay-off \u2013 reportedly worth around \u00a3260,000 \u2013 would be decided by the HR department.<\/p>\n But, he said, the official deciding the level of the pay-off would be someone who actually reported to Wormald \u2013 creating a conflict of interest. That is why the decision would have to be taken by the PM, requiring a ministerial direction.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Reform UK\u2019s Kent council faces \u2018extreme risk\u2019 after passing first budget<\/p>\n Reform UK\u2019s showcase council in Kent faces \u201cextreme risk\u201d and \u201cinstability\u201d, opposition politicians have warned, after it passed its first budget. Ben Quinn has the story.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Ex-cabinet secretary condemns PM’s treatment of Wormald as ‘shabby’ and says he must ‘get a grip’ on ‘disastrous’ aides<\/p>\n Good morning. Keir Starmer is heading off to the Munich Security Conference today, where he will no doubt be glad to be able to put UK domestic politics behind him for a bit. Patrick Wintour has a good article here about what is on the agenda.<\/p>\n But, as Starmer gets ready to leave, he is still facing criticism over his decision to defenestrate the cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald. Here is our overnight story by Rowena Mason and Pippar Crerar.<\/p>\n It is not unusual for prime ministers to want to change people at the top of the civil service, and to replace them with individuals with whom they can establish a better working relationship. But there is no precedent for a PM ousting a cabinet secretary they personally appointed just over a year previously.<\/p>\n Gus O\u2019Donnell, who was cabinet secretary for six years under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, was on the Today programme this morning and he said that the treatment of Wormald had been \u201cshabby\u201d. He said:<\/p>\n Where it shabby is the fact that we\u2019ve got to this place and that they have briefed anonymously against the cabinet secretary, saying it\u2019s not working.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve been doing this for a long time. This is a process that this government, I\u2019m afraid, [it\u2019s] one of their biggest failings. You\u2019ve seen it right from the start with Sue Gray, briefings against her, all the rest of it. This is the fundamental problem.<\/p>\n O\u2019Donnell blamed the PM\u2019s special advisers (or spads, as they are called) for the negative briefings. And he criticised Starmer for failing to stop this.<\/p>\n Really good spads are really useful. I\u2019ve worked with Ed Balls, Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell. If they\u2019re good, they understand their subject, they can make the the relationship between ministers and civil servants work a lot better.<\/p>\n Bad special advisers turn out to be second rate PR people. [They] can be disastrous. You saw in the run up to the budget; it was a complete omnishambles from a comms point of view, whatever you think about the economics of it.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s where the prime minister must take responsibility and get a grip.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n 10am: The high court delivers its judgment on a claim that the Home Office\u2019s decision to proscribe Palestine Action was unlawful.<\/p>\n Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is on a visit in Scotland.<\/p>\n Noon: Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, attends the Attitude 101 awards celebrating trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n Afternoon: Keir Starmer arrives at the Munich Security Conference.<\/p>\n And Kemi Badenoch is in Llandudno, where she is speaking at the Welsh Conservative conference.<\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X<\/a>, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n