Starmer says Antonia Romeo appointed cabinet secretary because of her ability to ‘get things done’ – UK politics live | Keir Starmer
Tories claim there are ‘serious unanswered questions’ about Wormald’s departure as cabinet secretary
The Conservative party has out a statement about the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary. This is from Neil O’Brien, the shadow minister for policy renewal and development.
In light of the shambles over the appointment of Peter Mandelson and the peerage given to Matthew Doyle, the government needs to spell out precisely what due diligence was undertaken of this new cabinet secretary.
There remain serious unanswered questions over why Sir Chris Wormald left government, and whether this was an attempt by 10 Downing Street to muzzle the response to parliament’s humble address on the Epstein-Mandelson files.
The claim that Wormald was forced out because Keir Starmer feared that he would collaborate with a Labour attempt to suppress the publication of Mandelson documents required under the humble address tabled by the Tories is a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence. It is surprising that O’Brien seems to be taking it seriously.
In truth, sources had been briefing about Starmer wanting to replace Wormald for months. The immediate trigger for his departure was the resignation of Morgan McSweeney as the PM’s chief of staff, which created an opportunity for wholesale change in the leadership at the top of Downing Street.
Key events
Plaid Cymru drops its 2035 net zero target for Wales
Plaid Cymru has announced that it is dropping its target to achieve net zero carbon emissions in Wales by 2035. As the BBC reports, Plaid backed this target in 2021 and reaffirmed it in its manifesto at the last general election. But Rhun ap Iorwerth, the party’s leader, told Radio Wales:
I think most people now can see that 2035 isn’t realistic.
We are very, very close. Time rolls by, and we have to take a pragmatic look at that.
I think everything points to needing to be a point in the future where we need to keep an eye on the prize.
Politics Weekly – with Peter Walker revealing what happened when he challenged Farage over insult to FT journalist
The lastest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. It features Kiran Stacey and Peter Walker taking about the Reform UK press conference on Tuesday, and the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary and it’s here.
Peter was at the Reform press conference and, as well as discussing what Nigel Farage’s response to a question from the FT journalist Anna Gross tells us about his attitude to women, he reveals that what happened when he spoke to Farage about it afterwards.
Peter says they met near the lift as they both left the building once the press conference was over and Peter, who has known Farage for quite a while, told him that what he had said to Gross was rude. Farage didn’t accept that. Peter then said what Farage said had been upsetting for Gross, and at that point Farage replied: “Good.”
Reform UK claims splitting role of cabinet secretary ‘vital precondition for restoring good government’
Reform UK has said, if it forms a government, it will appoint three cabinet secretary-type figures – instead of just having one.
Danny Kruger, who is head of Reform’s preparing for government unit, set out the plan in a statement responding to the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary.
Reform’s main plan for the civil service involves slashing civil service jobs.
But Kruger argues that new posts need to be created in Downing Street because, under the current system, the cabinet secretary has three roles anyway.
He says:
The cabinet secretary currently does three distinct jobs: operational management of the cabinet and cabinet committees; leadership of the 500,000-strong civil service; and chief adviser to the prime minister.
This is far too much executive responsibility for a single civil servant, and helps explain the chronic bureaucracy and misgovernment of Britain.
Under a Reform government these three roles will be fulfilled by three different people …
Separating these roles and putting the right people into them is a vital precondition for restoring good government to Britain.
This idea has been tried before. When David Cameron was PM, in 2012 he appointed Bob Kerslake to be head of the civil service, while Jeremy Heywood was cabinet secretary. The experiment was not judged a success and, when Kerslake left, Heywood took over the head of the civil service role and the two jobs were again combined.
The only person in recent years to have used the title chief adviser to the prime minister was Dominic Cummings, who worked for Boris Johnson. That was because he declined to accept the job of chief of staff. But in practice he was chief of staff, and the job described by Kruger is one that has been done for most of the last 30 years by Downing Street political aides with the chief of staff title.
Ex-cabinet secretary defends Romeo in light of bullying claims, saying civil service ‘too soft’ on poor performers
Gus O’Donnell, a former cabinet secretary, has defended Antonia Romeo in the face of claims that she has bullied staff in the past.
Romeo was appointed to O’Donnell’s old job despite the fact that she faced accusations of bullying relating to her time as consul general in New York in 2017. There was an investigation, but Romeo was cleared.
Speaking on Radio 4’s the World at One, O’Donnell welcomed Romeo’s appointment as “excellent”.
Asked specifically about the allegations of bullying, and whether he thought “a tough approach” would be welcome in that job, he replied:
I’m always in favour – and I think I’m there with the vast bulk of civil servants – that actually we need to do better at managing performance.
I think we’ve been possibly too soft – all of those really hard-working civil servants who are finding they’re alongside someone who’s actually maybe being paid more and is just coasting, then I’m all for us, yes, being a bit tougher, to be honest.
O’Donnell was also asked about a report saying that in 2017 Romeo had repaid travel expenses that she had claimed relating to the time in New York.
He replied:
All of us along the way will make mistakes. They have investigated all of these things.
When you get to the top of the civil service, you have to make tough decisions. You have to deal with difficult areas.
I remember starting a survey in the civil service when we looked at the issues around the civil service, and the biggest thing the civil service said was what we are bad at is handling poor performance.
So we do need someone who’s going to be quite robust in that and a reformer. And I think in Antonio will get that.
O’Donnell also said in some respects Romeo was better qualified for the job than he was.
We have now a permanent secretary who has done something [where] actually I had a gap in my CV, which was not doing delivery enough.
I was very much a policy wonk, let’s be honest.
And now we’ve got someone who’s actually proved that she’s really good at policy and really good at delivery.
Tories claim there are ‘serious unanswered questions’ about Wormald’s departure as cabinet secretary
The Conservative party has out a statement about the appointment of Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary. This is from Neil O’Brien, the shadow minister for policy renewal and development.
In light of the shambles over the appointment of Peter Mandelson and the peerage given to Matthew Doyle, the government needs to spell out precisely what due diligence was undertaken of this new cabinet secretary.
There remain serious unanswered questions over why Sir Chris Wormald left government, and whether this was an attempt by 10 Downing Street to muzzle the response to parliament’s humble address on the Epstein-Mandelson files.
The claim that Wormald was forced out because Keir Starmer feared that he would collaborate with a Labour attempt to suppress the publication of Mandelson documents required under the humble address tabled by the Tories is a conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence. It is surprising that O’Brien seems to be taking it seriously.
In truth, sources had been briefing about Starmer wanting to replace Wormald for months. The immediate trigger for his departure was the resignation of Morgan McSweeney as the PM’s chief of staff, which created an opportunity for wholesale change in the leadership at the top of Downing Street.
Reform UK plan to rip up Equality Act shocking and un-British, says Starmer
Reform UK’s plans to repeal the Equality Act are “shocking” and un-British, Keir Starmer has said, warning legislation that has provided decades of protection for women would be ripped up. Jamie Grierson has the story.
Former Labour adviser Ben Judah says it will be ‘tricky’ for PM to finalise Chagos Islands deal given Trump’s opposition
Ben Judah, an adviser to David Lammy when Lammy was foreign secretary, has explained in an interview with the Sun’s Harry Cole in some detail why the government signed the Chagos Islands deal. He told Cole’s YouTube TV show it was all about protecting the US/UK base on Diego Garcia, one of the main islands in the territory.
Judah said:
If I told you the full amount, or even half or even a quarter of what happens on that base, I would be taken away to HMP Gartree under the Official Secrets Act. It’s a really, really important base.
Once you know what it does, you start to get into this logic of, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to do everything possible to make sure that this space stays ours for the next 10, 50, 100 years, everything possible.’
And then you look at map. It’s not just one island called Diego Garcia. That would make life a lot easier. There are 1,000 atols – a huge area of the earth that they’re covering.
And the American deep state … . They were looking at that map and going, ‘We really have a problem here.’ The Brits’ legal position, for lawfare reasons, historic reasons, campaigning reasons, is collapsing. They are very close – we could argue about how many court cases close – but close to that legal position collapsing completely, and the international community saying that’s occupied territory that belongs to Mauritius.
And then what happens to all of those other islands in this new great game? All it would take would be for Mauritius, broken with the West, to invite China into any one of those atolls. And how the hell do we get them out?
That’s the logic that the US military found itself in, that the American deep state, the CIA and the people like that, were in; wouldn’t it be better if there was some kind of deal where everything changes so everything stays the same, so what really matters – which is an exclusion zone around [the Diego Garcia base] – is rock solid?
Asked if the deal would survive, Judah said:
To use hospital terminology, I don’t think it is quite ‘not for resusc’, but it’s looking tricky for the government to get this deal through in the weeks and months ahead. President Trump’s made his views clear several times about this.
The Tories have claimed that Keir Starmer is “panicking” about his Chagos Islands deal. Responding to a report saying the goverment is delaying the next Lords debate on the Diego Garcia military base and British Indian Ocean Territory bill (see 11.02am), Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said:
The government may say it will ‘pause for thought’, but the truth is that Starmer is panicking as his Chagos plan is blown wide open. It’s impossible for the deal to proceed without the support of our American allies, and Labour will soon run out of time to put anything before parliament.
Misley Mandarin, the leader of the group of four Chagossians who landed on an atol in the Chagos Islands on Monday and who describes himself as interim first minister of the Chagos Islands, has urged Keir Starmer to cancel the deal giving sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius.
In an interview with the Today programme this morning, Mandarin said:
I’ll say Keir Starmer, as my prime minister, you have to look at this treaty again.
British Chagossian on this island, yesterday you sent patrol to give us removal notice, the island belong to us. Harold Wilson did that … removing the Chagossian from their homeland and that is a stain on British politics but now it’s 2026, Keir Starmer, you could be a hero right now. Don’t ratify that deal, cancel that deal and let Chagossians come back to their homeland as British.
The UK government takes the view that the landing by Mandarin and his colleagues, on a place with no infrastracture, is a stunt intended to wreck the sovereignty handover and it has order the Chagossians to leave. But Reform UK and the Conservatives have backed the Chagossian settlers.
Prospect, a union that represents civil servants, has said that Antonia Romeo will need to engage with staff if she wants to change the civil service. Mike Clancy, the Prospect general secretary, said:
This is an important appointment at a crucial time for the civil service as the government continues with their reform agenda.
Civil servants and their trade unions want to be partners in reform, but this can only happen if we are properly engaged and if key barriers, such as pay progression for specialists, are acknowledged and addressed- this should be at the top of the cabinet secretary’s inbox.
Special needs support eligibility to be reviewed at start of secondary school in England
Children with a legal right to special needs support will face a review when they move to secondary school, with the first cohort to be impacted currently in key stage 1, Alexandra Topping and Richard Adams report.
Tories welcome ‘screeching U-turn’ as MoJ suspends plan to delete court records archive much used by journalists
The Conservatives have welcomed what they describe as “another screeching U-turn” after the government announced it was suspending an order for an archive of historic court records to be deleted.
Journalists have described the Courtsdesk service as invaluable. Courtsdesk, a private company, has a vast archive of court records, available electronically and easily searchable, which is widely used by journalists and campaigners. But it was ordered by the Ministry of Justice to delete the archive because of concerns about an AI company accessing private personal data.
Two weeks ago Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, defended the plans to wipe the archive in the Commons.
But last night, shortly before deletion was due to commence today, Courtdesk said it had been told to pause its plan to get rid of the information. Instead, the MoJ will work with the company on a new solution.
Courtdesk said:
BREAKING: UK Gov Legal Dept has written to us on behalf of HMCTS/MOJ asking us to pause deletion of our archive and engage in dialogue about a new licence. We are grateful for the opportunity to resolve it and have replied to confirm retention. More soon #OpenJustice #Courtsdesk
In a post on his Substack blog, Enda Leahy, the Courtsdesk CEO, said:
The government are right to be cautious and careful about how this data is handled and we are determined to show that it has never been put at risk by us.
We are responding to the letter from HMCTS [HM Courts and Tribunals Service] with the utmost urgency and in a spirit of full cooperation. We are genuinely hopeful that this marks the beginning of a constructive and lasting re-engagement.
We are grateful to the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS for initiating this dialogue and for the constructive tone of their letter. We will provide a full update as soon as we are able to do so.
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, said:
It’s another screeching U-turn from this flailing Labour government.
Under pressure from campaigners, journalists, survivors and the Conservatives, [David] Lammy is no longer hitting the delete button on court records. Courtsdesk has provided a vital service, and it is right that this vital database should be preserved.
If we are going to stop the rape gangs and expose other patterns of criminal behaviour, we need comprehensive and accurate data. But the sad truth is that the archive should never have been put at risk in the first place. David Lammy needs to get a grip of his department and put the public first.
One way of judging an appointment is, does it annoy the right people? On that basis, Guardian readers may be encouraged by the response to the news that Antonia Romeo has been made cabinet secretary. Allison Pearson, one of the Telegraph’s most rightwing commentators, is furious, describing Romeo as “woker than woke”. And GB News is on the warpath. Steven Edginton from GB News has posted a highly negative assessment of Romeo’s record here. Her offences include: “Promoted Guardian articles attacking Brexit.”
This is from the Spectator’s James Heale on Antonia Romeo replacing Chris Wormald.
Whitehall source messages re Wormald and Romeo: “The hare has finally beat the tortoise”
