Sir Chris Wormald will leave his role as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service today.
In a statement, the Cabinet Office said the prime minister and cabinet secretary had mutually agreed that Wormald should stand down.
Wormald was appointed to the position by the PM in December 2024, succeeding Simon Case, who stepped down due to ill health.
His departure, just over a year later, makes him the shortest-serving cab sec in history. The official statement gave no reason for Wormald's exit.
Wormald said: “It has 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. I want to place on record my sincere thanks to the extraordinary civil servants, public servants, ministers, and advisers I have worked with. Our country is fortunate to have such dedicated individuals devoted to public service, and I wish them every success for the future."
Starmer said: "I am very grateful to Sir Chris for his long and distinguished career of public service, spanning more than 35 years, and for the support that he has given me over the past year. I have agreed with him that he will step down as cabinet secretary today. I wish him the very best for the future."
The official statement said that, for an interim period, the responsibilities of the cabinet secretary will be shared by Cat Little, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office; Dame Antonia Romeo, the permanent secretary at the Home Office; and James Bowler, the HM Treasury permanent secretary.
The prime minister will appoint a new cabinet secretary shortly. The appointment process will be agreed by the first civil service commissioner.
Before becoming the government’s top civil servant, Wormald was perm sec for eight years at the Department of Health and Social Care.
He also spent 15 years at the Department for Education – including stints as principal private secretary to education secretaries Estelle Morris and Charles Clarke – and served as head of the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat in the Cabinet Office.
When appointing him, Starmer said Wormald would bring “a wealth of experience to this role at a critical moment in the work of change this new government has begun”. He added that there “could be no-one better placed to drive forward our Plan For Change than Chris”.
In July 2025, just seven months later, briefings emerged that Starmer had “buyer’s remorse” over the appointment. By October 2025, the speculation over his future had escalated, with various newspapers reporting Wormald would be gone by the end of the year.
Appearing before parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in November last year, Wormald addressed the speculation. Asked if he expected to remain in post for the foreseeable future, he said: "I certainly hope so. You never want to read stuff in the press. As you and I expect all members of the committee know, that is the price of public life at the moment, and I expect various members of the committee have had considerably more unpleasant things written about them. You go on with the job.
“Media speculation is exactly what it is. And I'm sure Sir Olly would agree with this. Our job is to get on with the job for which the taxpayer pays for, which is what I will be doing."