BBC -Sir Chris Wormald has been forced out as the head of the Civil Service and cabinet secretary.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who only appointed Sir Chris to the role in December 2024, said he was grateful “for the support he has given me over the past year”.
The Cabinet Office said the move was “by mutual agreement” but it follows months of negative media reports suggesting Downing Street was unhappy with his performance.
His responsibilities will be shared by Catherine Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Home Office and James Bowler, permanent secretary at the Treasury, until a replacement is appointed “shortly”.
It makes Sir Chris the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in the history of the post.
At the time of his appointment, the PM said Sir Chris would be tasked with “the complete re-wiring of the British state to deliver bold and ambitious long-term reform”.
However, as a career civil servant some questioned whether he was the best person to reform the Civil Service.
Sir Chris also had ultimate responsibility for the due diligence checks carried out before Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, although he took up the role only a few days before the appointment was formally announced.
He is the third senior official to leave the government operation in a matter of days, following Sir Keir’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his director of communications Tim Allan, as the PM seeks to reset his team after the Mandelson scandal.
Downing Street has not denied reports that Sir Chris received a payout in the region of £250,000.
Lord O’Donnell, a former cabinet secretary, told the BBC a senior civil servant’s exit payoff was “determined by the HR department and that turns on how many years he’s been in there”.
He said in his experience, the prime minister had to approve the payoff and decide whether it represented good value for money in such circumstances.
Lord O’Donnell said the handling of Sir Chris’s departure had been “shabby”.
He suggested Sir Chris had been the victim of anonymous briefings, which were “one of the biggest failings of government”.
He said the prime minister had to “get a grip on his special advisers”.
