Keir Starmer has appointed Dame Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service.
The appointment follows allegations she was previously spoken to about her management style.
Romeo currently the permanent secretary of the Home Office, becomes the first woman to hold the role of cabinet secretary.
She has previously faced accusations of bullying related to her time as consul-general in New York in 2017, but was cleared by the Cabinet Office.
Good morning. In May last year the UK government signed a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, with US consent. The agreement also included a provision for the UK and the US to continue operating their joint military airbase on Diego Garcia for at least another 99 years. Keir Starmer thought he had found a solution to a long-running diplomatic problem.
But, since then, it has been a bit of a nightmare because Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the deal his administration approved, partly because Conservative and Reform UK politicians have been doing their best to get Washington to reject the deal. The latest outburst from Trump came on his Truth Social network yesterday.
And here is our overnight story, by Nadeem Badshah.
This is not the first time Trump has denounced a deal that he previously supported. In their London Playbook briefing for Politico, Andrew McDonald and Bethany Dawson have a good round-up of Trump’s various U-turns.
Starmer must finally understand how his backbenchers feel when he piles up the U-turns. Trump said on Feb 27., 2025 he was “inclined” to go along with the deal, despite excitable (but perhaps ultimately prescient) noises from critics saying his administration would can it … He signed it off on April 1, 2025 … Then he described it as an “act of great stupidity” in a middle-of-the-night Truth post on Jan. 20 this year … Before he posted on Feb. 5 that it was the best deal Starmer could have made … Followed by official backing from the State Department on Feb. 17 … And then came his broadside on Feb. 18 apparently reversing all of that again. Trump’s press secretary confirmed later Wednesday that his view is that of the administration.
Only two days ago the US state department said it approved the Chagos Islands deal.
So where does this leave the deal? Last night the Foreign Office put out a statement saying the agreement negotiated by the government was “the only way” to guarantee the security of Diego Garcia. A Foreign Office spokesperson said:
The deal to secure the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia military is crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping the British people safe.
The agreement we have reached is the only way to guarantee the long-term future of this vital military base.
But Kemi Badenoch said that Trump was right to say the Chagos Islands should not be given to Mauritius, and that it was “time to kill this terrible deal”.
Trump is right.
As I’ve said before Starmer’s Chagos deal is an act of great stupidity. Paying £35bn to surrender the islands is complete self-sabotage.
Chagos is a strategic asset. If our closest ally is saying this, the PM should listen. It’s time to kill this terrible deal.
I will post more on this as the day goes on. Parliament is still in recess, and there is not much in the diary, but Starmer has given an interview to BBC Breakfast, mostly focused on the proposals to impose new sanctions on tech companies that don’t swiftly remove non-consensual intimate images that he has written about for the Guardian.
And details have been leaked about what will be in the plans to reform special educational needs and disabilities (Send) education that will be announced next week. Here is our overnight story by Sally Weale.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (between 10am and 3pm), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
