Who is Dame Antonia Romeo? Britain's first female Cabinet Secretary appointed - is she married, does she have children
Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Dame Antonia Romeo as Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service.
Dame Antonia, currently the permanent secretary of the Home Office, becomes the first woman to hold the role of Cabinet Secretary. Dame Antonia has a long track record of leading government departments including spells as permanent secretary at the Home Office, International Trade and the Ministry of Justice.
Her appointment was made following a due diligence process overseen by crossbench peer Baroness Gisela Stuart, the First Civil Service Commissioner. Dame Antonia replaces Sir Chris Wormald, who was forced out as cabinet secretary last week after serving in the job for just 14 months.
Sir Chris is the shortest serving cabinet secretary in history. She faced multiple bullying complaints earlier in her career but government sources have told the BBC that Sir Keir was impressed by her ability to "get things done".
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. The government has previously said three allegations relating to Dame Antonia's use of expenses and bullying of staff when she was the UK's consul general in New York were investigated and there was "no case to answer".
She was previously the senior civil servant at the Home Office and is highly regarded by some in Whitehall. A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "Antonia Romeo is an outstanding leader with 25 years of public service. She has been appointed to three different Permanent Secretary roles and has led hundreds of thousands of public servants to deliver for governments of all stripes.
"As we have repeatedly said, one formal complaint was raised nine years ago which was thoroughly investigated. The allegations were dismissed on the basis that there was no case to answer. It is entirely inappropriate to resurface dismissed HR proceedings almost a decade later."
A mother of three, Romeo studied PPE at Oxford University and obtained an MSc in economics at the London School of Economics. She has been Permanent Secretary at the Home Office since April, and has impressed Starmer with her handling of the small boats crisis.
She was previously permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), during which time she was given a damehood in 2024 for public service. Romeo has been nicknamed the “Queen of Woke” for her love of progressive causes.
She was appointed as the Civil Service’s “gender champion” in 2019, and wrote a blog entitled “Breaking the menopause taboo in the Civil Service”. Dame Antonia Romeo is married to John Romeo. He is a managing partner at the management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, where he leads the North American division. The couple married in 1999 and have three children together.