Sir Chris Wormald named as new cabinet secretary and head of civil service
Sir Chris Wormald has been named as the new cabinet secretary and head of the civil service.
The 56-year-old, who will now advise the prime minister on key policy decisions, will replace Simon Case on 16 December after he announced he is stepping down for health reasons.
Sir Chris is currently permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, advising the health secretary on policy and managing the budget since 2016 – all through the COVID pandemic.
Politics latest: No 10 condemns ‘misogynistic’ Gregg Wallace comments
Sir Keir Starmer, who gave final approval for Sir Chris, said he “brings a wealth of experience to this role at a critical moment in the work of change this new government has begun”.
The decision to promote Sir Chris is the biggest of Sir Keir’s premiership so far, with the civil servant having overseen large-scale reforms of several government departments – something that will have appealed to the PM.
The prime minister said his “mission-led” administration will change the way government serves the country, which “will require nothing less than the complete re-wiring of the British state to deliver bold and ambitious long-term reform”.
“Delivering this scale of change will require exceptional civil service leadership,” Sir Keir added.
“There could be no one better placed to drive forward our plan for change than Chris, and I look forward to working with him as we fulfil the mandate of this new government, improving the lives of working people and strengthening our country with a decade of national renewal.”
Sir Chris said he was “delighted” to be appointed to the “privileged role of leading our talented civil service”.
“The government has set a clear mandate – an ambitious agenda with working people at its heart. That will require each and every one of us to embrace the change agenda in how the British state operates,” he added.
“So I look forward to working with leaders across government, to ensure that the civil service has the skills they need to deliver across the breadth of the country.”
Professor Sir Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, will head up the Department for Health while a new permanent secretary is appointed.
Former Brexit negotiator Sir Olly Robins is understood to have been Sue Gray’s top pick for cabinet secretary. Pic: Reuters
Sir Chris Wormald beat other senior current and former civil servants to the job, advertised with a £200,000 salary.
The other contenders were: Sir Olly Robbins, a former director-general of the civil service who was involved in Brexit talks, Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, and Tamara Finkelstein, permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Some within Whitehall believe Sir Chris was a “safe choice” compared with the other options.
Simon Case said he was stepping down as cabinet secretary after four years due to a neurological condition. Pic: PA
He steps into the shoes of Mr Case, 45, who was appointed in September 2020 and served four different prime ministers.
In an email to the civil service announcing his resignation in September, Mr Case said: “As many of you know, I have been undergoing medical treatment for a neurological condition over the last 18 months and, whilst the spirit remains willing, the body is not.
“It is a shame that I feel I have to spell this out, but my decision is solely to do with my health and nothing to do with anything else.”
Mr Case announced his resignation following a difficult few weeks for Downing Street during which damaging leaks and internal rows took over the narrative, with Sir Keir growing increasingly frustrated.
The top civil servant was said to have had a tense relationship with Sue Gray, Sir Keir’s former chief of staff who stepped down in October following accusations from some Labour figures about the party’s handling of ministers taking freebies.
Roger Ver argued that the IRS’ exit tax for renounced US citizens with over $2 million in assets is unconstitutional and “impermissibly vague.”
Hydra market founder Stanislav Moiseev and 15 of his accomplices were jailed for between 8 and 23 years for their involvement in the darknet market and crypto mixer.
Politics
‘It doesn’t matter’: Reform deputy dismisses court records that say MP kicked his girlfriend
Richard Tice has been challenged for appearing to cast doubt on court documents that detailed how one of the party’s MPs was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend.
The Reform UK deputy leader defended James McMurdock, who was jailed 18 years ago for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, saying the UK is a “Christian nation” that believes in “redemption”.
Speaking to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Mr Tice said he did not believe Mr McMurdock, the party’s MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, should be “doomed as a sinner forever”.
Mr McMurdock, a former investment banker, was convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend in 2006 while drunk outside a nightclub.
He spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution after admitting to the attack.
Before he was elected as an MP, the investment banker had not publicly disclosed the conviction and when it emerged in July he had been jailed for attacking his girlfriend when he was 19 years old, he downplayed the incident as a “teenage indiscretion”.
Politics latest: No 10 defends crackdown on junk food adverts
But further details of what happened during the incident emerged after The Times applied to the court for information from the official record, which showed he received the custodial sentence for “kicking” the victim “around four times”.
James McMurdock. Pic: PA
Mr Tice said his colleague was an example of someone who “had a bad issue at a very young age but has gone full circle”.
He said the UK was a “great Christian nation” and added: “Are you seriously saying that if someone makes a bad mistake in life, aged 19, that there’s no redemption they are doomed as a sinner forever? No.”
He went on: “The whole point of Christianity is a sense of if you’ve done something wrong, you pay your price. And at the end of that sentence, whatever it is, then, in a sense you’ve done your bit, you served your punishment, whatever it is.
“Isn’t it remarkable that an individual had I, you know, had a bad issue at a very young age but has gone full circle.
“Doesn’t it show, actually, to other young people that bad stuff can happen – you can make bad judgements, you can get things badly wrong. But many years later, actually you can you can do really well.
“He had a great job and end up as a member of parliament. I think that’s a good thing.”
MPs do not have to disclose previous convictions to the public when standing, with only people in prison at the time of the election for a sentence of more than a year barred.
McMurdock’s victim’s mother brought the incident to light a week after his election, saying he “left marks on her body” and “it took two security guards to pull him off her”.
When the allegations were revealed, McMurdock said the pair had argued and he had pushed her.
Challenged on whether there had been a “major discrepancy” between Mr McMurdock’s version of events and what had been reported, Mr Tice replied that his “understanding” of the incident was “different” to what The Times said had happened.
Pressed on what he believed happened, Mr Tice replied: “It actually doesn’t matter.”
“I’m trusting James,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘He wasn’t vetted’, says Farage of MP
“He’s bang on the money and I think that what he says is right. He was there. The court wasn’t there. The Times weren’t there.
“The law is the law. The law ruled that he had transgressed and he was punished. He served his punishment.”
When the allegations emerged, Mr McMurdock told Sky News the incident was “the biggest regret of my life”.
He said: “While I absolutely deny the horrific details in this tale, there is one truth in it that I cannot, nor will not deny or hide from.
Read more:
Is Reform UK winning the ‘bro vote’?
‘Mind-boggling’ Brexit rules hit British food exports by £3bn a year
“A generous person might call it a teenage indiscretion but I do not expect everyone to be so kind.
“Nearly 20 years ago, at 19 years of age, at the end of a night out together, we argued and I pushed her. She fell over and she was hurt. Despite being 38 now and having lived a whole life again I still feel deeply ashamed and apologetic.
“Despite us both being very drunk, I handed myself into the police immediately and admitted my fault. I was charged for what I did, not for what has been claimed, and I faced the consequences then and paid for my action in full.
“This is the biggest regret of my life and I wish I could go back in time and fix things.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway