Is new Cabinet Secretary facing the axe already?

APerIOD of calm was expected to follow Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings’ dramatic departure from Downing street last month.

But now Whitehall is awash with rumours that simon Case, the youngest ever Cabinet secretary at only 41, may also be one of the shortest-lived.

the Cambridge-educated Case has previously worked for David Cameron and theresa May before being seconded to work as Prince William’s right- hand man for nearly two years.

He was brought back to No 10 in september by Cummings to help the latter in his planned ‘ hard rain’ i nitiative — a dramatic shake-up of the civil service.

Ironically, Case is now being viewed as terminally weak by fellow civil servants after he failed to persuade Boris Johnson to sack Home secretary Priti Patel following the report by ministerial ethics adviser sir Alex Allan that implicated her in the bullying of staff. Allan quit when the PM stood by Patel.

But should Case really be surprised at such disloyalty? shortly after he took up his post, Case was involved in a 100-person conference call ‘role-playing’ a second coronavirus wave alongside Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (CDL).

When Gove gently reprimanded civil servants for what he saw as their improper briefing of him for the exercise, Case is said to have observed: ‘You made your points far more gently than I would have done, CDL.’

the rebuke went down like a lead balloon.

His relationship with the PM is not good either. My Whitehall mole says: ‘Cummings persuaded Boris to elevate Case to Cabinet secretary and now he’s gone. the PM has found he doesn’t have a lot to say to Case. A lot of ministers object to him because they think he is a creature of Cummings.’

Unlike his predecessor, sir Mark sedwill, Case doesn’t always join in weekly meetings of the most senior Whitehall mandarins.

‘Perhaps he has other, more important work to do,’ my source adds, ‘but his absence is noted.’

Is Boris likely to move against Case? ‘If we leave the eU with No Deal, Case will have a baptism of fire. It will be a huge test,’ muses my mole.