Keir Starmer names Chris Wormald – who oversaw ‘smoking destroy’ Department of Health throughout Covid and admitted he ‘loses sleep’ about Brexit – because the UK’s new high civil servant
Department of Health chief Chris Wormald was named as the UK’s new top civil servant today.
Keir Starmer announced Sir Chris was being promoted to Cabinet Secretary, praising his ‘wealth of experience’.
He succeeds Simon Case, who is set to stand down from the key role on December 16 after more than four years.
But the appointment will cause a backlash, as former No10 aide Dominic Cummings has accused Sir Chris of running a ‘smoking ruin’ at DoH during the pandemic.
The Covid inquiry has also seen internal messages from March 2020 where the civil servant suggested the virus should be treated like Chicken Pox, with people encouraged to contract it. And back in 2018 Sir Chris told a committee of MPs that the impact of Brexit on the NHS kept him awake.
The PM said: ‘I want to thank Simon for his service to our country and for the invaluable support he has given to me personally during my first months as Prime Minister. He has been a remarkable public servant over many years, and our best wishes go to him and his family as he now takes time to focus on his health.
Sir Chris Wormald told MPs he worried about the impact on the workforce as well as future arrangements about treating patients on their travels
Keir Starmer announced that Sir Chris is being promoted to Cabinet Secretary, praising his ‘wealth of experience’
He succeeds Simon Case, who is set to stand down from the key role on December 16 after more than four years
The Covid inquiry has seen internal messages from March 2020 where the civil servant suggested that the virus should be treated like Chicken Pox, with people encouraged to contract it
‘I am delighted that Chris Wormald has agreed to become the next Cabinet Secretary. He brings a wealth of experience to this role at a critical moment in the work of change this new government has begun.
Sir Chris is believed to have seen off Sir Olly Robbins, the only external candidate, and serving permanent secretaries Dame Antonia Romeo and Tamara Finkelstein for the top job.
He said: ‘The Government has set a clear mandate – an ambitious agenda with working people at its heart. That will require each and every one of us to embrace the change agenda in how the British state operates.’
But Mr Cummings, who has been an outspoken critic of Whitehall since leaving No10, vented fury at the appointment to appoint to a role he said was ‘100X more powerful than ministers’.
He said Sir Chris was ‘the official who told us all in Q1 2020 that we were “the best prepared country in the world” for Covid; who was responsible for the PM being told by then Cabinet Secretary on Thurs 12 March to go on TV to advocate for people holding “CHICKENPOX PARTIES” so that as many as possible caught Covid as fast as possible – the official who has presided over the implosion of the NHS and A&E’.
‘The logic is beautiful for Whitehall to put the guy in charge of pandemic planning before 2020 in charge of the whole system,’ he added.
Wormald’s greatest hits
Covid ‘should be treated like chicken pox’
Sir Christopher was caught up in a row last year over conversation he had during the early stages of the pandemic with then Cabinet Secretary’s Mark Sedwill, in which he agreed Covid should be treated like chicken pox, with people encouraged to catch it to build ‘herd immunity’.
In November 2023 the official inquiry into the pandemic which left more than 208,000 Brits dead, was shown messages from early 2020, between Lord Sedwill and Sir Christopher, who was permanent secretary at the Department of Health at the time.
Sir Christopher told his boss he was ‘exactly right’ to believe that people in the UK should become infected to build up population immunity — when enough people have built up immunity to a virus that it is unable to spread.
In November 2023 the official inquiry into the pandemic which left more than 208,000 Brits dead, was shown messages from early 2020, between Lord Sedwill and Sir Christopher, who was permanent secretary at the Department of Health at the time.
Sir Christopher told his boss he was ‘exactly right’ to believe that people in the UK should become infected to build up population immunity — when enough people have built up immunity to a virus that it is unable to spread.
In a message exchange on March 12, 2020, Lord Sedwill said: ‘I don’t think PM & Co have internalised yet the distinction between minimising mortality and not trying to stop most people getting it.
‘Indeed presumably like chickenpox we want people to get it and develop herd immunity before the next wave.
‘We just want them not to get it all at once and preferably when it’s warn (sic) and dry etc.’
Sir Christopher responded: ‘Exactly right. We make the point every meeting, they don’t quite get it.’
The exchange came a matter of days before the Government moved to introduce a lockdown, amid fears about the NHS being overwhelmed by the virus.
Health bosses were not prepared for Covid lockdown
In June 2023 Sir Christopher had told the inquiry himself lockdowns never formed part of Britain’s pandemic preparedness plans before the virus ravaged the country.
He told the hearing the Government’s widely-criticised strategy was heavily based on a flu outbreak and did not contain any plan for widespread contact tracing — a cornerstone of the country’s Covid response.
During a grilling by the probe’s counsel, Hugo Keith KC, Sir Chris said: ‘Widespread contact tracing was never part of the influenza pandemic plan.
‘And lockdowns, as in legal lockdowns, were not what we had planned for.’
Responding to questions on the Government’s stockpile of influenza PPE, he also confirmed the three month supply was used ‘in the early months’.
He added: ‘We never nationally ran out of PPE. We were very short and had significant logistical issues.
‘So the stockpile we had built up was useful. Was it big enough for the pandemic that we had?
‘It would have been much better were it to have been larger.’
Admitted he ‘lost sleep’ over Brexit
Sir Christopher admitted he ‘loses sleep’ over the consequences of Brexit for the NHS.
Sir Chris Wormald told MPs in 2018, before Boris Johnson signed an agreement with the EU, that he worried about the impact on the workforce as well as future arrangements about treating patients on their travels.
Speaking to the Commons Brexit Committee, he said the issues he was concerned about were the same regardless of whether a deal had been struck.
Asked about the main ones were, he replied: ‘Those three are securing the supply of medicines, workforce questions and reciprocal health care arrangements with the EU 27.
‘Those are the three things that keep me awake on this subject.’
