Resignations of Case and Moore prompt difficult questions for Garrick members

Both men U-turn within 24 hours of refusing to resign as colleagues and critics express dismay at club’s continuing lack of diversity

• Head of civil service and MI6 chief resign Garrick membership
• Members list reveals roll-call of British establishment
• Garrick Club remains a bastion of male elitism

The resignations of two of Britain’s most senior Whitehall figures from the men-only Garrick will prompt difficult questions for dozens of other powerful individuals from the UK’s male-dominated establishment who remain members.

Neither the cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, Simon Case, nor the head of MI6, Richard Moore, resigned in a particularly dignified manner.

Initially, both seemed to think that the Guardian’s revelations about their membership merely required a skilful bit of news management from their media advisers and both concluded that there was no pressing need to resign from the central London club, with its billiard room, libraries, bars and multiple dining rooms, staffed by waiters in pristine white jackets.