Sir Keir Starmer has defended Dame Antonia Romeo as an “outstanding leader” amid growing expectations she will be picked to succeed Sir Chris Wormald as cabinet secretary.
Dame Antonia previously faced allegations of bullying relating to her time as consul general in New York, but was later cleared by the Cabinet Office following an inquiry.
Asked about reports that the senior civil servant had been spoken to about her management style following the inquiry, the prime minister’s official spokesperson insisted that Dame Antonia’s record “speaks for itself”.
They said, “one formal complaint was raised nine years ago, and the allegations were dismissed on the basis that there was no case to answer”.
“Antonia Romeo is an outstanding leader with a 25-year record of excellent public service, including having been appointed to three permanent secretary roles,” he said.
Asked again, No 10 said it would “never get into documents relating to confidential HR processes”.
The spokesperson said: “Antonia Romeo’s record speaks for itself… I’m not going to get into individual HR files or reports.”
A source told the BBC that Dame Antonia faced “tough conversations” about her leadership style in the wake of the investigation, adding that “there were some issues of personal style that grated with people”.
It comes after Dame Antonia’s former boss, Lord Simon McDonald, ex-permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, last week suggested he had doubts about a potential decision to appoint her.
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.”
He said there should be a “full process” to appoint a new cabinet secretary, which “needs to start from scratch”.
“This is the most important job in the civil service ... It can’t be chosen on the fly. Due diligence is vitally important.”
Government sources dismissed Lord McDonald’s claims, saying there was “absolutely no basis for this criticism” and calling him “a senior male official whose time has passed”.
Dame Antonia is one of three civil servants filling in as cabinet secretary in the interim following Sir Chris’s departure. The other two are Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little and Treasury permanent secretary James Bowler.
After 35 years in the civil service, Sir Chris is now the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in history. His 14-month stint was far less than the 23 months Sir Mark Sedwill held the position for under Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
His departure – which the Cabinet Office said was by “mutual agreement” – came just days after the resignations of Sir Keir’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and communications chief, Tim Allan.
The shake-up was part of an attempt to draw a line under the scandal over the appointments of peers Peter Mandelson and Matthew Doyle to top roles despite their association with sex offenders – with Sir Keir facing questions over his judgement.
The government has vowed to improve its vetting processes after the prime minister claimed Lord Mandelson lied about the depth of his association with Jeffrey Epstein during his vetting before being appointed Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
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