Prime minister Keir Starmer has reportedly put the brakes on the appointment of Gen Gwyn Jenkins as the UK's next national security adviser.
Jenkins, who was commissioned as a Royal Marine in 1990, had been due to take up post this summer after being named for the role in April by then-PM Rishi Sunak. At the time, Jenkins had been serving as vice chief of the defence staff since August 2022.
At a Downing Street press conference this morning, Starmer pledged there would be an "open and transparent process" for re-running recruitment for the national security adviser role.
But he added: "I'm not going to publicly discuss individual appointments."
The Guardian reported yesterday that sources had confirmed a new NSA appointment process would be run, and that Jenkins would be able to apply for the role.
However, it said one unnamed official had described the situation as looking like "another part of the grab for power by Keir Starmer and Sue Gray", referring to the PM's chief of staff.
The paper said the decision to block Jenkins' appointment and run a new process appeared to some in Whitehall to be further evidence of the new prime minister's "determination" to ensure that senior civil service positions were filled by allies of the new administration.
At the time Jenkins' appointment as national security adviser was announced, cabinet secretary Simon Case said his experience in government – which includes stints as military adviser to former PM David Cameron and as deputy national security adviser – made him "excellently placed" for the role.
Former Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office second permanent secretary Sir Tim Barrow is currently serving as national security adviser. He was appointed to the role in September 2022 by then-PM Liz Truss, who had sacked predecessor Sir Stephen Lovegrove in the very first days of her record-breakingly brief spell as prime minister. Lovegrove, a former Ministry of Defence perm sec who was named as the government's AUKUS adviser last week, had been in post as NSA for 18 months.
Sunak's April announcement that Jenkins would take over as NSA this summer was widely seen as paving the way for Barrow to become British ambassador to Washington DC later this year – an appointment which was never formally announced.
The Guardian said Barrow's appointment had also been cancelled, with Starmer keen instead to appoint a "Labour grandee such as Peter Mandelson or David Miliband" to the role. However, the paper added that a decision on the choice was not expected to be made until the outcome of November's US presidential election is known.
CSW sought a government response to the Guardian's story.
A spokesperson said: "All senior appointments will be considered in the usual way."