A former top civil servant has urged No 10 to do “more due diligence” as it prepares to replace the cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, with Antonia Romeo, the frontrunner for the role.
Sir Simon McDonald, the former permanent secretary of the Foreign Office, said he had tried to warn No 10 the process needed to start from scratch and it was vital that the prime minister followed a thorough procedure given the importance of the role.
He told Channel 4 News: “The due diligence needs to be thorough. If the candidate mentioned in the media is the one, in my view, the due diligence has some way still to go.”
No 10 was preparing to confirm earlier on Wednesday that Wormald would depart his job as cabinet secretary after just a year in the job – but the announcement was delayed.
Multiple government sources said a new cabinet secretary would not be announced at the same time and the role would be split between officials on an acting basis in the interim. They also said it was not a “done deal” that Romeo would get the cabinet secretary job, despite her having previously been found to be an appointable candidate a year ago.
Romeo, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, has been widely considered to be the frontrunner after she was on the shortlist for the job last time. The other candidates include Tamara Finkelstein, who has now left the civil service, and Olly Robbins at the Foreign Office, who was at the top of the department when Peter Mandelson was appointed as US ambassador.
Foreign Office sources say the vetting process for Mandelson began before Robbins joined the department and, like all appointments, the process was handled by the Cabinet Office not the permanent secretary.
Romeo is viewed as a dynamic official outside the traditional civil service mould, in contrast to Wormald, who is being forced out partly over concerns he is not the right person to drive reform in Whitehall.
She won support within the civil service for her warning to Dominic Raab, then justice secretary, over behaviour that led to his being found to have engaged in bullying conduct towards officials. She has also impressed Shabana Mahmood at the Home Office.
However, Romeo has also faced questions about her spending while consul general in New York in 2017, working under McDonald at the Foreign Office. A subsequent Cabinet Office investigation cleared her of any wrongdoing.
Asked about this on Channel 4, McDonald said he would like to discuss this with No 10 through its vetting process.
A government source said: “There is absolutely no basis for this criticism.
“Antonia Romeo is a highly respected permanent secretary with a 25-year record of excellent public service. The allegations all come from a single grievance made some time ago by a former employee. All the allegations were dismissed on the basis there was no case to answer.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson declined to comment on speculation about the departure of Wormald and possible promotion of Romeo to cabinet secretary.
