It’s a mandarin circular firing squad in Whitehall this morning as the row over Antonia Romeo’s upcoming appointment as Cabinet Secretary hits the headlines before poor Chris Wormald has even been shown the door. Last night, ex-Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Simon McDonald told Channel 4 News “due diligence has some way to go” if Romeo gets the job. There are questions over historic bullying allegations and expenses abuse. McDonald is not alone in suggesting she’s hardly a low risk choice…
Defensive measures have now been activated, with ‘a government source’ telling the Times‘ Steven Swinford:
“This is a desperate attempt from a senior male official whose time has passed but spent their career getting Britain into the mess it finds itself in today. A computer says no culture, that cannot challenge the status quo… Antonia is a disrupter. She isn’t settled with the status quo. She is one of the few senior officials that has always fought against the computer says no culture embedded in the British state…”
Whitehall officials are attacking each other in broad daylight. A total mess…
Speaking on the Labour chaos over the last few weeks, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told The Guardian:
“You call it a sh*tshow, I say it’s unforgivable…It does look to people outside that we’re more interested in ourselves and less interested in preventing chaos. […] We’ve not done enough, and this has got to be the moment of reckoning where we say not just what are we here for, but who are we here for?”