Sir Chris Wormald has said he is “getting on with the job” and that he “hopes” to continue in his roles as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service.
Wormald appeared at the Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday alongside Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office permanent secretary Sir Olly Robbins to answer questions on the vetting and clearance for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the United States.
Towards the end of the session, Conservative MP Sir John Whittingdale asked the cabinet secretary about recent anonymous briefings that No.10 had “lost faith” in him and that he was unlikely to last in the job beyond January.
“You'll be aware that there has been quite a lot of speculation about your own position,” Whittingdale said. “Do you expect to remain in post for the foreseeable future?"
Wormald responded: "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."
During the session, Wormald confirmed that Lord Mandelson had not been interviewed for the ambassador to the US role because it was a direct ministerial appointment. He said changes have been made since Mandelson’s sacking meaning “we effectively replicate what would normally happen in a panel interview... where there is a minuted conversation with the candidate". The lack of interview meant Lord Mandelson was not directly asked about any conflict of interest, but instead filled in a form which was more focused on “economic or financial conflicts”.
Wormald ‘brings it all together in a way that no one else can’
Earlier in the day, Wormald was praised for his “deep” experience” by colleague JP Marks, the permanent secretary for HM Revenue and Customs.
Speaking at an Institute for Government event on civil service leadership, Marks answered a classic IfG-event question on whether the cab sec and head-of-civil-service roles should be split.
He explained how he had similarly combined the role as Scottish Government perm sec and said: "I personally wouldn't want it to be different in that job, because if you're sat with the first minister, as you are every week, you want to be able to offer policy advice and sit as part of the cabinet and make sure government is operating as the first minister wishes.
"And the main way in which you do that is with the team, and you don't want to then have to then have to go and ask someone's permission to have a chat with health or education or transport or defence or whatever. So I appreciated the combination of policy advisor to the first minister, leader of the civil service, and accounting officer of the government, and I thought those three things coherently came together.”
Marks acknowledged that doing both the cab sec and head of civil service role is "a big ask" and said you therefore need someone alongside you like "the fabulous Cat Little, to drive delivery and lead the civil service".
"But ultimately Chris is the boss, and he has got deep experience of running education, health, leading the country through the pandemic," he said. "I can't remember his count for attendance at Public Accounts Committee [hearings], but it is sort of off the chart. He has seen it, done, it been there, and he brings it all together in a way that no one else can."
Marks added: “And I think if you break it up, it ultimately makes it a bit more difficult to coherently lead the government, particularly when you are trying to keep everything joined up through a transition to a new government."
At the event, CSW asked about the impact of briefings like the recent ones regarding Wormald's future and whether they could put talent off from applying for the biggest civil service jobs.
Atul Devani, a civil service commissioner, said: "If you compare it to outside industry and you’re the CEO of an organisation, you’re always in the public limelight as well. You’re there to make some deliverables and sometimes those deliverables may mean that they’re quite challenging. You may not have resources. You may not have the skills in place. You try to put all of those in place as part of your role.
"There will be cases when that goes into the public domain. It’s definitely a challenge...to be able to cope with those sorts of things. But from a commissioner perspective we make sure that those senior appointments are done on the basis of merit, so at the time we bring those people in they have got those skills, because it’s imperative to have those skills to do those jobs."
Gisela Stuart, the first civil service commissioner, added: "I think once you get to those senior jobs, personal resilience is one of the factors which play a part in taking up those positions. And I’ve got a lot of respect for the resilience they display. These aren’t easy jobs and I think we should probably value that a bit more."