Cabinet secretary Chris Wormald steps down as Keir Starmer loses top aide from No 10

Sir Chris Wormald has stood down as Britain’s top civil servant after just 14 months, the government confirmed, as Sir Keir Starmer seeks a reset of his ailing Downing Street operation.

His departure – which the Cabinet Office said was by “mutual agreement” – comes just days after the resignations of chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and communications chief, Tim Allan.

The shake-up is part of an attempt to draw a line under the scandal over the appointments of Lord Peter Mandelson and Lord Matthew Doyle to top roles despite their association with sex offenders.

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was an attempt by the PM to “save his own skin”, accusing him of having thrown the outgoing cabinet secretary “under the bus”.

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Sir Keir this week survived the toughest test of his premiership so far, with figures in his own party calling on him to step down.

The prime minister said he was grateful for Sir Chris’s “long and distinguished career of public service”.

“I have agreed with him that he will step down as cabinet secretary today,” he said. “I wish him the very best for the future.”

Meanwhile, Sir Chris said it had been “an honour and a privilege to serve as a civil servant for the past 35 years, and a particular distinction to lead the service as cabinet secretary”.

He had been due to lead the probe into Lord Mandelson’s contact with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein while he was a government minister.

The prime minister will appoint a new cabinet secretary shortly, the Cabinet Office said.

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Home Office permanent secretary Dame Antonia Romeo – who is widely tipped as a replacement – will share the responsibilities with Catherine Little and James Bowler for an interim period.

Dame Antonia’s former boss, Lord Simon McDonald, ex-permanent secretary at the foreign office, this week 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,” he said. “It can’t be chosen on the fly. Due diligence is vitally important.”

The government has promised to improve its vetting processes after the prime minister claimed Lord Mandelson lied about the depth of his association to Epstein during his vetting before being appointed Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

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Meanwhile, questions have been raised over the screening process for Lord Doyle, who was handed a peerage despite having campaigned for his friend Sean Morton to become a councillor in 2017 despite knowing he’d been charged with having indecent images of children.

Ahead of Sir Chris’s resignation, Ms Badenoch also said Sir Keir should delay the change in leadership at the Cabinet Office until the disclosure of the Mandelson files is complete.

“It is hard to escape the conclusion that the cabinet secretary is simply the latest person to be thrown under a bus by this prime minister,” the Tory leader said in a letter to the Civil Service Commission.

“It is all the more concerning to be changing cabinet secretary in the midst of the ongoing scandal over the appointment of Lord Mandelson and his conduct in office.”