Keir Starmer personally ordered a £260,000 pay-off for the ousted head of the civil service after being told the cost of getting rid of him was not justified, it was claimed today.
After days of chaos in which Downing Street refused to say whether the Cabinet Secretary was still in post, the government announced last night that Chris Wormald was standing down ‘by mutual agreement’.
It marked an extraordinary turnaround from just 14 months ago, when Sir Keir installed Sir Chris in the top job saying he was the right man to ‘rewire the British state’.
But Sir Keir is now facing fresh challenges over his apparent pick for a replacement, Home Office mandarin Antonia Romeo. She was previously investigated for bullying and misusing expenses, although the probe cleared her.
Sir Keir passed over Dame Antonia for the post in December 2024.
Sir Chris, 57, is thought to be in line for a severance package of around £260,000. But according to The Times civil servants refused to go ahead with the deal until they had received a ‘direction’ from the PM.
That is a mechanism triggered when officials do not believe spending on an action is justified, and demand specific instruction to make clear politicians are responsible.
For an ‘interim period’ his responsibilities are being shared by the heads of three Whitehall departments: the Cabinet Office’s Cat Little, the Treasury’s James Bowler and the Home Office’s Dame Antonia.
The Government said a permanent replacement for Sir Chris will be appointed ‘shortly’.
Sir Keir said: ‘I am very grateful to Sir Chris for his long and distinguished career of public service … and for the support that he has given me over the past year.’
The PM is said to have been impressed by Dame Antonia’s handling of the small boats crisis at the Home Office.
But Westminster insiders have suggested Dame Antonia will not apply for the job again, and would only accept if she is handed the role without another process.
The Civil Service Commission is set to decide on whether one is necessary, leaving Sir Keir’s decision on a knife edge.
As The Mail on Sunday revealed in 2020, Dame Antonia was investigated for bullying and misusing expenses while serving as Consul General in New York. She was later cleared.
Ex Foreign Office chief Lord McDonald of Salford revealed he had contacted No 10 to warn against Dame Antonia getting the job without a proper recruitment process.
He told Channel 4 News: ‘In my view, the due diligence has some way still to go.’
But a Government source insisted: ‘There is absolutely no basis for this criticism. The allegations all come from a single grievance made some time ago by a former employee. All were dismissed.’
Giving broadcast interviews for the government this morning, water minister Emma Hardy denied that Sir Chris had been ‘scapegoated’ for Sir Keir’s own failures.
She told Sky News she paid tribute to Sir Chris’s ’35 years as a civil servant, so that’s his entire career dedicated to public service, and I’ve got a huge amount of respect for anybody who puts that much into public service, so I, you know, I wish him all the very best for the future’.
Asked about the fact that there had been three high-profile departures from Government in recent days, she said: ‘Well, I think (Sir Keir) is keen to, sort of, you know, look at his team and make sure that we have the team we need to deliver on the priorities this year.
‘I mean, he’s absolutely dedicated to cutting the cost of living. He was talking about that in the meeting that we had on Monday. I know for definite that’s what people talk to me about here, and how they constantly talk to me about problems around the cost of living.
‘So I think it’s right that he has a team that is able to drive that forward. But I do want to say I have nothing but respect for Sir Chris or the rest of the people that have served within the Government, and you know, I hold them in the highest regard, but like in any situation, if people make a mutual decision that it’s time to move on and try something else, then I respect that.’
