Dame Antonia Romeo, the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, is set to be appointed as Britain's top civil servant.
Sir Keir Starmer is set to appoint Romeo, who has been dubbed the “Queen of Woke” as Britain’s first female Cabinet Secretary.
She would replace Sir Chris Wormald, who looks set to resign as part of a shake-up in the Prime Minister’s team, following the departures of former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and director of communications Tim Allan this week.
Romeo has twice previously been a frontrunner for the role, having missed out to Simon Case in 2020, and to Wormald just over a year ago.
National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell seems set to remain in post.
Who is Dame Antonia Romeo?
Dame Antonia Romeo has worked in the Civil Service since 2000, serving as the most senior civil servant in the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for International Trade, as well as working as Consul General in the US.
A mother of three, Romeo studied PPE at Oxford University and obtained an MSc in economics at the London School of Economics.
She has been Permanent Secretary at the Home Office since April, and has impressed Starmer with her handling of the small boats crisis.
She was previously permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), during which time she was given a damehood in 2024 for public service.
She oversaw the early prisoner release scheme while at the MoJ, and she also served as the head of the trade department under the Conservative government.
Romeo has been nicknamed the “Queen of Woke” for her love of progressive causes.
She was appointed as the Civil Service’s “gender champion” in 2019, and wrote a blog entitled “Breaking the menopause taboo in the Civil Service”.
She has claimed that diversity and inclusion is “absolutely crucial” for Whitehall, and wrote of her pride and delight when one of her former departments was praised by Stonewall for making the ministry “more inclusive for trans staff'.
Around a decade ago Romeo served as British consul general in New York, where she promoted British interests and UK trade while hosting a series of parties for celebrity figures including Calvin Klein, Anna Wintour, and the now-disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
In 2017, she was accused of bullying staff and misusing expenses while in New York.
It was alleged that Romeo allowed her husband’s firm to use their taxpayer-owned property for work events for free, and that she threatened junior staff who raised objections.
There were also allegations of questionable spending, with taxpayers' money spent on school fees, business class flights, taxis, flowers, and paint and furnishings for her residence.
Her allies insisted that the spending was part of her job to promote the UK, but some former colleagues believed Romeo was more set on furthering her personal brand rather than the UK's interests.
Romeo was investigated but subsequently cleared by the Cabinet Office, who found she had no case to answer, and she was promoted a few weeks later to permanent secretary at the Department for International Trade.
Last year, the Cabinet Office said: “These allegations were made some time ago, were thoroughly investigated and were dismissed on the basis there was no case to answer.”
Ahead of her potential appointment, a government source who has worked with Romeo said: “She’s the obvious and outstanding candidate for it.
“Wormald was appointed because he was a safe pair of hands and less of a disrupter. Romeo is the opposite and would attempt to rewire the state, which is what we now desperately need.”
Sources also pointed to internal changes Romeo has overseen at the Home Office, where the senior management structure has been overhauled, and Romeo made appointments at director-general level.
