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A former chief UK negotiator for Brexit and three serving Whitehall department chiefs have made the shortlist to become the next cabinet secretary, with an announcement expected as soon as this week.
Sir Keir Starmer has already begun interviewing the final four candidates for the £200,000-a-year role, which involves advising the prime minister and the cabinet as well as overseeing the civil service.
Sir Olly Robbins, a former director-general of the civil service who was also the most senior official involved in Brexit talks between 2017-19, is the only external candidate, according to people familiar with the process.
He currently heads up the Europe, Middle East and Africa division at global strategic advisory firm Hakluyt, after a stint at Goldman Sachs following two decades on Whitehall.
The internal candidates are Dame Antonia Romeo, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice; Tamara Finkelstein, permanent secretary at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; and Sir Chris Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority and a former private secretary to both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, had been longlisted, but did not make the shortlist. The FCA was on Monday lambasted by MPs and Lords in a damning report that called for a complete overhaul of the regulator.
Starmer is seeking a replacement for Simon Case, who announced in September that he was stepping down at the end of the year as he receives treatment for an undisclosed “neurological condition”.
Case was appointed in 2020 by then-prime minister Boris Johnson and was at the helm of the civil service during the pandemic-era “Partygate” scandal.
Up until now the process to appoint his successor has been handled by the first civil service commissioner Baroness Gisela Stuart and a panel, who interviewed a longlist of 10 candidates.
Starmer is interviewing the candidates individually — in part to test his “chemistry” with them, as the prime minister and cabinet secretary will work together closely, according to one person familiar with the process.
Robbins was said to have been championed by Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray, though his candidacy has survived her departure from Downing Street.
There had been predictions that a woman would be chosen to counter accusations of a “boys’ club” at the heart of government, but officials said the appointment would be made on merit.
Romeo was previously at the helm of the Department for International Trade and was a former Consul-General in New York.
Wormald is the longest-serving permanent secretary, having been at the helm of the health department since 2016, and before that having overseen the Department for Education. He conducted some parts of Case’s role while he was on medical leave, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
Finkelstein worked for two decades at the Treasury, and her role at Defra is her first permanent secretary job.
Sir Suma Chakrabarti, a former ministry of justice permanent secretary, was earlier selected, but failed to make the final shortlist. Melanie Dawes, head of the media regulator Ofcom, had been widely tipped as a possible candidate, but did not apply.