Cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald – the UK’s most senior civil servant – is leaving No 10 in the wake of the recent Downing Street crisis.
In a statement, the Cabinet Office said the prime minister and the cabinet secretary has agreed that Sir Chris will stand down as the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service “by mutual agreement” from today.
He will be replaced Simon Case in the £200,000-a-year role on 16 December 2024. His departure today makes him the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in history.
The role will now be shared by three senior civil servants until a replacement is appointed, and it leaves Sir Keir Starmer without a permanent cabinet secretary, chief of staff, or director of communications – roles that have all been vacated in less than a week.
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Sir Chris 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.”
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Sir Keir Starmer added: “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.”
Third No10 departure in less than a week
The cabinet secretary is the head of the Civil Service, and is often a key adviser to the prime minister on major policy decisions and the internal workings of the government.
At the time of his appointment 14 months ago, Sir Keir said Sir Chris would be tasked with “the complete re-wiring of the British state to deliver bold and ambitious long-term reform”, and there was “no one better placed” to deliver that than him.
However, there have been reports for months that the prime minister was unhappy with his performance, and his departure comes as little surprise to many in Whitehall, and comes on the heels of Morgan McSweeney leaving as Downing Street chief of staff and Tim Allan as communications director following the crisis of Sir Keir’s premiership in the last week.
Reacting to Sir Chris’s ousting, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said he is “the latest person Keir Starmer has thrown under the bus to save his own skin”.
The responsibilities of the job will be shared in the interim between three senior civil servants – Catherine Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, James Bowler, permanent secretary at the Treasury, and Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Home Office, and widely reported to the prime minister’s preferred candidate to take on the role permanently.
An appointment is expected to be made “shortly”, the Cabinet Office said.
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