Sir Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation has been labelled a “viper’s nest” amid dismay in the senior ranks of Whitehall over anonymous briefings aimed at Sir Chris Wormald, Britain’s most senior civil servant.
Britain’s mandarins expressed concern at what they believe are political attacks by Labour on Wormald, who was only appointed as cabinet secretary by Starmer in December 2024, and infighting at the heart of government.
One senior official said: “It’s an absolute viper’s nest. There are multiple factions all briefing against each other. This is no way to run a country.” Another said simply: “Yuk.”
One Number 10 insider had told The Times that Wormald would be gone by January amid growing concerns over his performance.
“Chris is a parody of every civil service stereotype. He is given clear instructions on an issue and says we will be able to deliver it only after we’ve commissioned a wide-reaching review that reports sometime in the mid-2080s,” they said.
A Labour figure who has worked closely with Starmer echoed the criticism of Wormald, telling the Financial Times that he fitted the Yes Minister stereotype of an undynamic senior civil servant.
One suggestion doing the rounds in Labour circles is that Baroness Louise Casey, a long-standing government adviser on issues from homelessness to the child grooming scandal, should replace Wormald.
Starmer’s spokesman insisted that Wormald, a long-serving civil servant, continued to have “the support” of the prime minister, following reports that some No 10 insiders believed he will be gone by the end of January.
The briefings call into question Starmer’s own judgment, given that he chose Wormald to replace Sir Simon Case as cabinet secretary even though he was widely seen as the candidate most clearly identified with the Whitehall establishment.
Dave Penman, head of the FDA civil service union, said: “These anonymous briefings are hugely damaging and self-defeating. What does this say about the political leadership and what does it say to anyone who wants work at the most senior level of the civil service?”
He argued that the government was to blame for not delivering promised reforms to public services. “Scapegoating the civil service didn’t work as a strategy for the last government and it won’t work for this one.”
Number 10 sought to throw an arm around Wormald, with one ally of the cabinet secretary saying: “Chris wasn’t at all perturbed by it. He doesn’t look like a man who thinks he’s about to lose his job.”
However even Wormald’s supporters admit that he has plenty of critics and that he is being held responsible by some in Starmer’s team for the slow delivery of government policies.
Starmer’s spokesman said the prime minister’s “general position” was that he wanted things “to move further and faster”, but defended Wormald. “They’re working closely together to deliver on the priorities of the British public.”
One Whitehall veteran was doubtful about the idea of Casey replacing Wormald. “Give her a specific task and she’s very good,” he said. “But I’m not sure she has the patience and staying power for system-wide reform and delivery.”
Another option discussed in Whitehall circles is for Wormald to be sidelined with Starmer appointing a new permanent secretary for Number 10 to drive policy delivery. However Starmer’s allies say that is not being considered.
Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, is keen to shake things up and was behind a speech given by the prime minister earlier this year in which he said the government had to act as “a disrupter” — a role not normally associated with career civil servant Wormald.
But McSweeney himself has been the target of briefings from Labour colleagues, with some claiming he has recently seemed disengaged from some discussions in Number 10.
“He just isn’t interested in government,” said one senior Labour figure. “He’s obviously smart but he’s been put into a role which involves making government function properly. Clearly his bigger interest is in winning elections.”
McSweeney was the mastermind of Labour’s 2024 general election win and before the election told friends that he envisaged staying in more of a campaigning role.
Vidhya Alakeson, Starmer’s deputy chief of staff, has been left doing a lot of the delivery role in Number 10, according to government insiders. One said: “Vidhya and Morgan get on fine but there are inevitable tensions over who is actually in charge.”
Darren Jones, a former Treasury minister, is another figure in the complex power structure at the heart of government: Starmer has given him the newly created job of “chief secretary to the prime minister”, with his own remit to deliver policy.
The briefings come after Starmer has already overseen the dismantling of his original Number 10 team after little more than a year in office, in a recognition that it was failing to deliver. Out of 20 or so people in Starmer’s political inner circle before the general election, only half a dozen remain.
“It’s no secret it’s a miserable place to work right now,” said one Labour official.
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