Britain’s top civil servant quits in fresh upheaval for PM Starmer

LONDON - Britain’s top civil servant quit his post after just 14 months, adding to the churn in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government that had already seen him

lose two of his most senior aides this week

.

Mr Chris Wormald is standing down as Cabinet secretary with immediate effect, the government said on Feb 12 in a statement that didn’t elaborate a reason for the resignation. The decision was reached “by mutual agreement” with the prime minister, it said.

Mr Wormald’s departure underscores the instability in Mr Starmer’s administration after

his chief of staff, Mr Morgan McSweeney

, on Feb 8, and his communications chief, Mr Tim Allan, a day later. The now former Cabinet secretary becomes the shortest-serving holder of the post since its inception 110 years ago.

Nevertheless, the move will likely be welcomed by those in the governing Labour Party who perceived Mr Wormald – a veteran of the civil service – to have been a block on change, government officials told Bloomberg earlier this week.  

When he appointed Mr Wormald in 2024, Mr Starmer demanded “the fundamental re-wiring of the British state”. The hire provoked some internal opposition because Mr Wormald had worked in Whitehall for three decades and was not seen as someone who was likely to shake up the system.

The departure comes on the back of questions around Mr Starmer’s judgment in appointing Mr Peter Mandelson as US envoy in late 2024, despite knowing about the Labour grandee’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. In his own resignation statement, Mr McSweeney took responsibility for advising the premier to make that hire.

Mr Starmer said last week that the government needed to look again at the vetting process behind the decision, which included a due diligence exercise conducted by the Cabinet Office. Mr Wormald has previously described that as “largely a collation of open source material”.

The government said it would appoint a new Cabinet secretary “shortly”.

In the interim, the civil service will be led by three senior officials: Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office Catherine Little, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office Antonia Romeo and the Treasury’s top official, James Bowler. Of those, only Ms Romeo was on the shortlist the last time the position came up. BLOOMBERG