by “It’s a mixture of hypocrisy, naivete and arrogance,” says one former Number 10 special adviser. “There’s a lot of hyperbole in politics but that’s amazing to me.”
Sue Gray was always going to take on the business of the new Labor administration, but the golden rule of unelected political figures has already been broken by this powerful civil servant who is a government enforcer. She has become the story. The revelation that Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff is paid £170,000 a year – £3,000 more than his manager – and the ongoing white noise over gifts and freebies to the Prime Minister and senior ministers, led by former special advisers who were once. she worked with her on how Gray managed to go from policing the ethics of high politics in Britain to overseeing what some allege are double standards.
The special adviser (often referred to as spads) says: “Firstly, OK, the Labor opposition came down hard on the Tories in government over perceptions of financial impropriety and self-interest, using words like ‘sleaze’ – having done all that and in a way that didn’t think you’re going to be held to the same standards just mad. Secondly, in the case of Sue Gray, she made her career and name in government as a guardian of standards. It’s really hard not to worry about even the perception of the message that her salary sends.”
It is a sign of how far attention has turned to Gray – and how tired the Labor hierarchy appear to be of the apparent displeasure about the situation leaking from Downing Street – that Health Secretary Wes Streeting joked at an event at the Labor Party conference in Liverpool, “It’s getting worse before it gets better. Sue Gray hid Lord Lemur and shot JFK, and I can’t even tell you what she did to Shergar.” Adding sarcastically, “I don’t know how we’re going to recover from this, honestly.” It went unnoticed that Gray, who accompanied Starmer to the recent North London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal, decided to stay away from the first Labor Party Conference since 2009.
“She was really a very toxic influence in government,” says another former Conservative special adviser. “When Starmer first hired her, there was a sharp gasp from many swordsmen who dealt with her in government, and many civil servants too, who were, on the whole, too sensible to say anything. If you’re a Starmer, why would you walk in and immediately p— off the team that helped you get into government and immediately p— on the team you rely on to get into Whitehall?”
“When she was in the Civil Service it was the job that protected her – now she is much more exposed,” says the first special adviser. “The way she has treated some of her Labor colleagues means she has already made enemies and reduced her own political capital in the party. In hard times you need allies.” Number 10 says: “We do not comment on leaks or these types of reports on individuals.”
Of course, Gray has come under public scrutiny before, but until she left Whitehall to work for Labour, she was widely regarded as an objective and close friend of the politically neutral Civil Service. After holding various posts in various state departments since the 1990s, she served as director general of the Fitness and Ethics team in the Cabinet Office between 2012 and 2018.
“I vividly remember negotiating my salary in person with Sue,” explains the first special adviser. “We were treated in a rather high fashion because we were told that the government should be whiter than white and it was a privilege to do the job and you don’t do it for the money. Sue herself told all these things. If she’s done all this now while she’s in the know, the arrogance is amazing.”
Gray led two Cabinet Office inquiries, the first into the “plebgate” affair in 2012, which led to the resignation of Andrew Mitchell as chief minister. The second was in 2017, regarding the behavior of the then First Secretary of State, Damian Green. After a spell in the Civil Service in Northern Ireland, Gray returned to Whitehall as second permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office in 2021.
Her biggest investigation followed when Cabinet Secretary Simon Case withdrew from looking into the “party-gate” allegations. She took over the process to see if the then PM Boris Johnson knew about social gatherings in Number 10 during the pandemic lockdowns. Its initial findings were published on 31 January 2022 and the full report – following a Met Police investigation – was delivered in May of that year with a devastating impact on Johnson’s Premiership.
“I saw no reason to doubt her impartiality in conducting inquiries as a civil servant,” says the first adviser. “I saw spades and ministers treating her badly but I saw that was universal and I think Labor councilors in the new administration would say the same: that she asked them to accept pay cuts and contracts were not signed quickly. That does not help the government to run smoothly. Many councilors from the Cameron coalition onwards would say the same. The big question now is whether Sue seems willing to expel him – perhaps for good reasons – but doesn’t seem willing to learn by example.”
Number 10 says: “On pay, although we do not comment on reports on members of staff, as set out publicly special advisers cannot ‘authorize the expenditure of public funds or be responsible for budgets’ according to the Code of Conduct. So any decisions on pay and terms of special advisers are made by officials, not political appointees. The Board of Special Advisers is chaired by a senior official formally delegated to make all final decisions on pay.
In March 2023 Gray resigned from the Cabinet Office and was appointed as Starmer’s chief of staff in September, an appointment criticized by some Conservative MPs, who questioned her impartiality across party lines. Gray, whose son Liam Conlon is now MP for Beckenham and Penge, formally joined Labour.
“To be fair, she has worked so long in the Civil Service and knows that the tenure for these roles is short so she probably feels her salary reflects all those years of service,” he says. another former Downing Street leader. . “But anyone who was truly political would know not to take a higher salary than the Prime Minister. Maybe it’s a power play and he ties Starmer to her because he would have to agree with it.”
“Even Sue’s appointment was a big deal because of how it happened,” says the first adviser. “Like it or not Sue Gray is already a lightning rod and that has been true from the moment she decided to accept the job of investigating the party gate and has continued until she became the head on Keir Starmer’s team. It’s never a comfortable place for your counselor to be and it’s a wrong place for your counselor to be. You can’t do the job as effectively if you have the story.”
As the long-time head of the Fitness and Ethics team, Gray also oversaw policies around donations, gifts and freebies – raising the same questions that have resurfaced in the past two weeks since it was revealed that Starmer has having accepted a succession of gifts from the Lord benefactor of Labour. Alli and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have also taken similar opportunities. There is no suggestion that any rules have been broken by Ministers or Lord Alli, but questions remain about public perception and political judgement.
“When people are not naturally political they don’t make the best political decisions,” explains a third former special adviser. “Civil servants do not understand the culture of political parties and everything related to it from the lowest level up. Accepting gifts and hospitality is the same as salary. Labor had a strong sense that they were not at the front of the queue for gifts such as concert tickets because they have not been in government for long. It sounds silly, but for them, it feels like a reward for all the years of hard work. They feel they deserve it.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t take the freebies to the Labor front bench,” says the second special adviser. “It is hypocritical in that she was responsible for checking the interests and conflicts of ministers in the Cabinet Office.”
Downing Street sources informed that at the start of the party conference that neither Starmer, Rayner or Reeves would accept any other gift of clothing which indicates that, while there was nothing inappropriate about this arrangement, concerns about public cynicism are finally being taken seriously. On the eve of the conference, Starmer told the Observer: “I have always said that the rules must be followed. What I went after [Boris] Johnson was not abiding by the rules.” When asked about Gray’s salary he said: “I’m not going to talk about the individual salaries of any staff member. I am the person who runs the government. I am the one who makes the decisions and I am the one who takes responsibility for those decisions.”
“The problem here isn’t Sue, it’s Starmer’s judgement,” says the second spade. “She’s already carrying in the Dominic Cummings model, which I’m very surprised because she saw [his behaviour] first hand She doesn’t really understand what a team leader is. Sue is someone who created her own processes in a dark corner of Whitehall. And so here’s the crucial difference between what she did before and what she does now, which is that she’s a much more public figure. She can’t hide.”
