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Sir Keir Starmer will be looking for a new head of the UK civil service to succeed Simon Case within months, as the prime minister prepares a major overhaul of the way his government operates.
Case, who has suffered from ill health and has been in post since August 2020, is expected to step down as cabinet secretary in early 2025, according to government insiders.
His impending departure means that Starmer will soon begin the search for a successor, who will be charged with ensuring the government machine delivers Labour’s growth agenda.
Responding to a Politico report that Case would soon step down, Downing Street declined to comment on “speculation”, saying: “The cabinet secretary continues to carry out the full functions of his role.”
But government insiders said Case, who took medical leave between October 2023 and January this year, was still receiving treatment and taking advice from doctors.
One said: “He’s not sure how much further he will work into the new year. There’s an expectation at some point he will step down but no date has been set yet.”
Case was appointed by Boris Johnson during the pandemic in 2020 on the advice of Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser. At the time Case, formerly Downing Street permanent secretary, was 41 and viewed by other mandarins as relatively inexperienced.
He has since served three other prime ministers, including Starmer, and had privately told colleagues that he expected to stand down in 2025 after a decent period had elapsed after the general election.
Starmer, who used to run the Crown Prosecution Service, will take a keen interest in who comes next. “Keir has always been interested in the ‘how’ and well as the ‘what’ in running an organisation,” said one Starmer ally.
The prime minister is planning to break down departmental silos in Whitehall to pursue its “missions” for government and streamline decision making, according to party officials.
Sue Gray, who worked under Case before leaving the civil service last year to become Starmer’s chief of staff, will also play a key role in the selection process, which is likely to run through the autumn.
Sir Olly Robbins is seen as an early frontrunner. He had the task of negotiating the UK’s Brexit deal and worked at Goldman Sachs after leaving Whitehall in 2019. He now works at advisory firm Hakluyt.
Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, is seen as another contender, as is former Treasury official Dame Melanie Dawes, who has been chief executive of media regulator Ofcom since 2020.
If appointed, Romeo or Dawes would become Britain’s first female cabinet secretary.
One possibility discussed in Labour circles is for Starmer to appoint two senior officials, with one running the civil service machine and the other charged with ensuring the prime minister’s writ runs across all policy areas.