urged the prime minister<\/a> to do more due diligence before making his decision. Starmer put aside those objections on Thursday when he confirmed Romeo\u2019s appointment, making her the first ever female cabinet secretary.<\/p>\nOne former complainant said: \u201cIt is pretty extraordinary but not exactly out of character for the current No 10. It is just another example of poor judgment, and the elevation of those with questionable integrity despite the concerns raised by ordinary people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said: \u201cThere is a real risk this comes back to bite the prime minister. The many people she bullied and intimidated, most of them women, will now feel failed for a second time. It\u2019s not a good look for the civil service or the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third complainant said: \u201cTaking shortcuts to make appointments based on special treatment instead of merit and due diligence has already created chaos. This is an indication that problematic leadership decisions will persist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Government sources have insisted that the allegations against Romeo should not be counted against her given they are 10 years old and were dismissed at the time by the Cabinet Office.<\/p>\n
Starmer defended his decision on Thursday, calling Romeo \u201can outstanding public servant, with a 25\u2011year record of delivering for the British people\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAntonia has shown she is the right person to drive the government to reform and I look forward to working with her to deliver this period of national renewal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romeo said it was a \u201chuge privilege\u201d to become the head of the civil service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe civil service is a great and remarkable institution, which I love,\u201d she said. \u201cWe should be known for delivery, efficiency and innovation, working to implement the government\u2019s agenda and meet the challenges the country faces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romeo\u2019s supporters say she is dynamic and willing to break civil service conventions to achieve the government\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n
But her critics say she is more focused on promoting herself than the government she works for and that her impatience at more junior staff has sometimes tipped over into bullying.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint made in 2017, Romeo told several colleagues she would end or damage their careers after disagreements in the normal course of work.<\/p>\n
One allegation says Romeo warned that the refusal by a junior member of staff to comply with a particular request was a \u201ccareer-limiting move\u201d and \u201cwould only happen once\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another who disagreed with one of Romeo\u2019s ideas said Romeo told her she \u201cwould make sure [that person\u2019s] reputation and career in London suffered\u201d.<\/p>\n
Other allegations included in the complaint concerned her financial affairs. They included her decision to get Farrow & Ball to provide more than $100,000 (\u00a374,000) worth of paint to redecorate her residence in return for free publicity, as well as a $250 (\u00a3186) expense claim for a taxi to a football match.<\/p>\n
The allegations, which were part of one complaint, were all investigated at the time by Tim Hitchens, a former ambassador to Japan, who was flown in to conduct a week-long review.<\/p>\n
Hitchens found that she had a case to answer on her management style, but not on her financial affairs. His finding was overturned by the Cabinet Office however, which said she had no case to answer.<\/p>\n
Three complainants from the time have contacted the Cabinet Office in recent weeks to raise concerns about her previous behaviour.<\/p>\n
Downing Street insisted on Thursday that full vetting had taken place on a previous occasion when she was considered for the job. No 10 said it had consulted the civil service commissioner, Gisela Stuart, who said the full process did not need to be re-run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer\u2019s decision to appoint Antonia Romeo as the country\u2019s most senior civil servant has prompted dismay among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-434993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}