Britain’s top civil servant Simon Case is taking time off for a “private medical matter,” No10 confirmed on Tuesday.
Rishi Sunak wished the Cabinet Secretary a “speedy recovery”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister informed Cabinet that the Cabinet Secretary is taking a short period of leave due to a private medical matter.
“He said the Cabinet Secretary was due to return in the coming weeks and that he knew colleagues would join him in wishing for a speedy recovery.”
A number of other permanent secretaries and director generals across Government would pick up his responsibilities while he is away.
Mr Case has been at the centre of several Whitehall controversies.
The Covid Inquiry heard earlier this month that the Government was described by the head of the civil service as looking like a “terrible, tragic joke”, while Boris Johnson’s now-wife was “the real person in charge” when he was PM during the pandemic.
Mr Case, who was appointed in September 2020 having been permanent secretary in Number 10 before then, wrote that he was “not sure I can cope” amid apparent frustration at how the pandemic was being handled in Government.
The messages were briefly flashed up on screen during Friday’s hearing of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in London, as a letter to the inquiry from Dominic Cummings was shown and discussed.
The letter contained an email dated July 13, 2020 which Mr Cummings said was “on the problems of the No 10/CabOff (Cabinet Office) set up that is relevant to the inquiry”.
Mr Cummings said it was copied to the PM “but he never engaged seriously”.
The WhatsApp messages appeared on screen above the email and are understood to have been from October 14, 2020.
Mr Case wrote: “Am not sure I can cope with today.
“Might just go home. Matt just called, having spoken to PM. According to Matt (so aim off, obvs), PM has asked Matt to work up regional circuit breakers for the North (as per Northern Ireland) today – and to bring recommendations. I am going to scream…”
Lee Cain, who was Mr Johnson’s director of communications until November 2020, replied: “Wtf are we talking about.”
Mr Case, in an apparent reference to Mr Johnson’s then-partner and now wife, Carrie Johnson, replied: “Whatever Carrie cares about, I guess.”
Case wrote: “I was always told that Dom (Dominic Cummings) was the secret PM. How wrong they are. I look forward to telling select cttee tomorrow – ‘oh, f*** no, don’t worry about Dom, the real person in charge is Carrie’.”
Further down the messages, Mr Case wrote: “This gov’t doesn’t have the credibility needed to be imposing stuff within only days of deciding not too (sic). We look like a terrible, tragic joke. If we were going hard, that decision was needed weeks ago. I cannot cope with this.”
Rivka Gottlieb, spokeswoman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, which campaigned to have an inquiry into the pandemic, said each day of hearings “feels like it draws new appalling evidence”, adding that it is “beyond devastating to think about the suffering that was caused unnecessarily by the chaos in Government in 2020”.
Mr Case was also at the centre of some of the “partygate” furore, though, it is not clear if he was fined for any breaches of Covid rules.
