Case, who served four prime ministers, was the most senior official in government from September 2020 to December 2024, when he stepped down on health grounds.
The cabinet secretary role involves advising the prime minister, leading implementation of the government’s policies and managing other high-level civil servants.
Case was in the role for the six months after Labour won the general election last year and was involved in the transition between governments.
Those early months were marked by riots following the stabbings of young girls at a dance class in Southport, a row over ministers accepting freebies, and Sue Gray leaving her role as Sir Keir’s chief of staff.
In his first interview about the early days of the Labour government, Case was asked whether ministers had done enough thinking about what they were going to do in office.
Case told the BBC: “There were some elements where not enough thinking had been done.
“There were areas where, sitting in the centre of government, early in a new regime, the prime minister and his team, including me as his sort of core team, knew what we wanted to do, but we weren’t communicating that effectively across all of government.”
He continued: “Definitely I would say, early on, we weren’t good enough at communicating what wanted to be done and what that needed to be to everybody.”
But he added: “I absolutely don’t think it is right to describe it as a chaos.”
