An intriguing development has surfaced involving an official who worked under Sir Keir Starmer’s newly appointed head of the civil service. This individual was encouraged to participate in a ‘gender non-conforming book club’ as part of their yearly performance evaluation.

During Dame Antonia Romeo’s leadership at the Department for International Trade (DIT), reports indicate that a civil servant was assigned to dedicate one day each week to inclusivity projects.

Dame Antonia, at 51 years old, has been referred to by some as Whitehall’s ‘Queen of Woke.’ Recently, she was appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary, becoming the head of the civil service.

The Prime Minister selected Dame Antonia for this influential position following the dismissal of Sir Chris Wormald, who had only been in the role for 14 months.

Her historic appointment as the first woman to hold the UK’s top civil service position is overshadowed by contentious briefings related to previous bullying allegations.

Before this role, Dame Antonia was the leading official at the Home Office and had earlier served as the permanent secretary at both the Ministry of Justice and the Department for International Trade.

The Telegraph reported, while Dame Antonia was in charge of DIT from 2017 to 2021, a staff member was set objectives to help raise ‘awareness and visibility of non-binary identities’.

The employee was told to spend up to 20 per cent of their time fulfilling inclusivity goals such as encouraging colleagues to display their preferred pronouns and ‘recruiting non-binary staff’, according to the newspaper.

Dame Antonia Romeo, who has been dubbed Whitehall’s ‘Queen of Woke’ by some, was this week named the new Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service

The Prime Minister chose Dame Antonia for the powerful role after sacking Sir Chris Wormald just 14 months after appointing him

As part of a performance review, the employee is said to have been set a target of joining the department’s ‘gender non-conforming book club’.

A source said members of the club read Middlesex, a 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides about an intersex American, as well as books about people transitioning gender.

Other tasks said to have been assigned to the employee included participating in ‘discussion of the non-binary corporate network’ and ‘challenging dated and discriminatory societal gender norms of expression, presentation, behaviours, roles or expectations that reinforce the patriarchy’. 

Fulfilment of such objectives reportedly contributed 5 per cent to the civil servant’s annual performance appraisal.

The Cabinet Office strongly refuted a suggestion that the objectives were directly set by Dame Antonia herself.

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman, this week criticised Sir Keir for appointing the ‘Queen of Woke’ to be the UK’s most powerful civil servant.

He claimed Dame Antonia is ‘the embodiment of all that’s wrong with The Blob’.

But Nadhim Zahawi, the former Tory chancellor who is now a member of Reform, said Dame Antonia being named Cabinet Secretary was a ‘good appointment’. 

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘Civil service objectives are agreed between the employee and their line manager, not with the Permanent Secretary.

‘Antonia was not involved in the setting of these objectives. Dame Antonia has spent nearly a decade leading economic, public services and security departments.

‘She is an outstanding public servant, with a 25‑year record of delivering for the British people.’

Dame Antonia previously faced accusations of bullying related to her time as consul-general in New York in 2017, prior to her joining DIT, but was cleared by the Cabinet Office.

Downing Street said an ‘enhanced due diligence process’ was carried out before Dame Antonia’s appointment as Cabinet Secretary.

First Civil Service commissioner Baroness Gisela Stuart approved the appointment of Dame Antonia, who was previously found to be a suitable candidate for the job in the 2024 recruitment contest ultimately won by Sir Chris.