Chris Wormald received record £860,000 payout after Starmer ousted him as cabinet secretary

Cabinet Office accounts show Sir Keir Starmer approved a record near-£860,000 severance package for sacked cabinet secretary Chris Wormald, exceeding his contractual entitlement.

• Cabinet Office accounts show Wormald received £859,496 upon leaving the top civil service job in February, after serving 14 months.
• Starmer granted a ministerial direction in February to approve the payment, which exceeded Wormald's contractual entitlement and raised value-for-money concerns.
• Wormald, now a crossbench peer nominated by Starmer, was replaced by Dame Antonia Romeo as the shortest-serving cabinet secretary in the post's history.
• Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart called the payout "an appalling waste of taxpayers' money."