Starmer bypassed Treasury value-for-money checks to approve £500,000 exit payout to dismissed cabinet secretary

Keir Starmer forced out cabinet secretary Chris Wormald after 14 months. The payout — roughly £500,000 — exceeded Wormald's contractual entitlement. Cabinet Office permanent secretary Cat Little could not certify value for money, so Starmer issued a ministerial direction: a formal override of Treasury rules. The PM who dismissed him thus authorised the payment himself.