She's been tasked with overhauling Britain's bureaucracy. Can Antonia Romeo succeed?

The high-profile cabinet secretary is pushing for radical reform amid growing pressure to shrink the civil service

"Make it happen. Make it better. Make it count."

Dame Antonia Romeo has made her presence felt across Whitehall in multiple ways since her promotion to cabinet secretary in February. Her new slogan for the civil service, imprinted on the screensaver of officials' computers, is just one of them.

Romeo has become one of the key figures in Andy Burnham's administration: although she was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer, she served him briefly enough to avoid becoming tied to his legacy.

Her task now is to restore confidence in a bureaucracy that has exasperated politicians of both left and right and earned a reputation, fairly or not, for stifling innovation and tolerating mediocrity.

Both Nigel Farage's Reform UK and the Conservatives have promised to cut the civil service dramatically if they gain power, citing Donald Trump and Argentina's chainsaw-wielding president Javier Milei respectively as inspirations.

Farage's party has also proposed replacing rafts of senior non-partisan officials with political appointees if elected.

Romeo is in effect aiming for the civil service to jump before it is pushed, with the prospect of trimming tens of thousands of jobs, partly by embracing AI. Having warned colleagues that the organisation is in the "last chance saloon", she is due to outline her plans in a speech next month.

"When you have a cabinet secretary committed to civil service reform . . . this is when it gets exciting," Burnham said in a speech this month, while also praising Romeo for embracing his project of devolution.

The previous two cabinet secretaries, Lord Simon Case and Lord Chris Wormald, were seen by senior civil servants as relatively low-profile figures who spent limited time with the prime minister of the day.

Romeo has sought to rebuild the position's clout. She has claimed a desk in Burnham's outer office, and endeavours to be present in all of his most important meetings, according to officials. Wormald, in contrast, did not see Starmer daily before his dismissal at the start of the year.

A former management consultant, Romeo's primary skill is "grip", according to one government figure: "You know she will leave a meeting and get stuff done."

"She has bolstered relationships and confidence between ministers and officials," said Alex Thomas, programme director at the Institute for Government think-tank.

He added that the early indications were that she would be a strong and consequential cabinet secretary in the mould of Lord Gus O'Donnell or the late Sir Jeremy Heywood, her mentor.

The think-tank Demos published a report this month entitled "Northcote-Trevelyan 2.0: Restoring the legitimacy of the state with a Burnham-Romeo plan", comparing the current moment with the historic 19th-century professionalisation of the civil service.

Such hype and Romeo's own style have not endeared her to everyone.

An article by historian Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph last month carried the headline "Antonia Romeo has become too big for her boots". She has appeared in a Vogue list of 25 women shaping Britain.

A former Labour Downing Street official said her high profile "sits uneasily with being a civil servant -- she might have been better off standing for election".

Her allies argue she has earned the right to a profile. "Ministers want her around because she gets stuff done. They don't mind if that comes with her getting a bit of profile. Who cares, if she's delivering?" said one permanent secretary.

Romeo, 51, previously served as permanent secretary at the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Department for International Trade. She faced allegations of bullying, which the Cabinet Office said were examined and dismissed as there was "no case to answer".

Under Burnham, Romeo and first secretary of state Louise Haigh have sought to streamline the centre of government. They have created a new Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet that will focus primarily on policy and delivery, leaving other functions such as HR to another part of Whitehall.

Some government figures say there is an element of competition between the two. "There's a bit of 'who can be the first and last person out of the room with Andy'," said one.

Allies have dismissed any suggestion of tension. "Tired stereotypes and sexist drivel," said a person close to Haigh. Haigh herself told the FT in August that Romeo was "absolutely fantastic".

Alongside advising Burnham on policy, the other half of Romeo's job is heading up the civil service.

In July she launched a review of the civil service, first commissioned by Starmer, which is examining its size and shape under Burnham's new "devolution by default" regime. It also aims to overhaul digital transformation, performance management, recruitment and training -- with changes already under way. Implementing AI will be a major focus.

The civil service, which has grown to 557,825 people according to the most recent government data, is now due to shrink in the coming years.

Romeo has made recruitment open to external applicants by default, opening up even the most senior roles -- such as the director-general for propriety and constitution -- to outsiders.

Civil servants have faced repeated salvos from their political masters in recent years, from Boris Johnson labelling them "the blob" to Starmer decrying how too many were "comfortable in the tepid bath of managed decline".

There has been churn at the top of a slew of Whitehall departments since Romeo's arrival in the top job: six have seen new permanent secretaries appointed. It has prompted a perception in some quarters that she is building a power base.

One of Romeo's missions has been to reinvigorate the senior leadership group of the civil service, which comprises around 200 officials, by convening regular get-togethers.

Sir Anthony Seldon, a historian who has written a history of Britain's cabinet secretaries, said he had high hopes that Romeo would push through radical reform of Whitehall -- in part because she has "won the confidence of the permanent secretaries".

"She's tough as a nut and she's highly intelligent and strategic," he added.

In the short term, the key measures of her success will be the evolution of Number 10 North and the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, said Thomas of the Institute for Government.

"Her test for the coming months is making those changes stick and ensuring they really make a difference to the effectiveness of the system," he said.