Sue Gray to tell government watchdog when job talks with Labour began

By Kate Whannel and Laura Kuenssberg

BBC News

Ex-senior civil servant Sue Gray will tell the government appointments watchdog when she first had talks about becoming Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, following Tory anger over the proposed move, the BBC has been told.

Ms Gray will approach the watchdog about her new role on Monday.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth told the BBC the job offer proved his party was serious about being in government.

But some Tories have argued the move undermines civil service impartiality.

Ms Gray quit her position at the levelling up department on Thursday, after reports first emerged that she could take the job with Labour.

Questions will persist for Labour – not because there are any doubts about Ms Gray’s ability, but because the civil service is meant to be completely neutral.

Naturally, the rules stipulate that means not talking to the opposition without permission from secretaries of state.

Speaking to the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, was repeatedly asked when Ms Gray was offered the job.

He declined to answer directly, but said Sir Keir had been looking for a new chief of staff for “several weeks” and Ms Gray was “always going to be on the list.” A Labour source said “‘on the list’ didn’t mean ‘in talks’.”

An adviser to Sir Keir added, “although they [Ms Gray and Sir Keir] had crossed paths professionally, they’re not friends or part of the same social circles.

“However when Keir started thinking of possible candidates, Sue was on that list because he thought her experience and integrity would be great assets for the team as we prepare to hit the ground running in government.”

Until the ‘hows’ and ‘whens’ of the contacts are clarified, Labour’s opponents will continue to poke at the issue.

Last year, Ms Gray produced a highly-critical report into lockdown gatherings held in Downing Street while Boris Johnson was prime minister.

Earlier this week, Mr Johnson said people may now look at her report “in a different light”.

Labour have said Ms Gray was not approached about the job until after her Partygate report was published.

Mr Johnson is currently facing a different inquiry, run by a cross-party group of MPs, into whether he misled Parliament, when he said Covid rules had not been broken in Downing Street.

In an initial report published on Friday, the MPs said the evidence they had seen “strongly suggests” Covid rule breaches would have been “obvious” to Mr Johnson.

However, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris – and a close ally of the former prime minister – said Mr Johnson was “generally an honest man”.

He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he did not believe that Mr Johnson had “knowingly misled Parliament”.

Asked if this was the government’s line, he replied: “I don’t think there’s a government official position. There’s a parliamentary process going on. And I think we would wait to see what came out of that parliamentary process.”

Speaking on Sky News earlier, Mr Heaton-Harris praised Ms Gray as someone of “integrity” but urged the Labour leader to publish all his messages with the former civil servant.

“I think Keir can clear this up in seconds by saying this is what we talked about at that time, there’s nothing to see here.”

Senior civil servants, as well as ministers, are expected to check with the government watchdog – the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) – about any employment they wish to take within two years of leaving government.

The body can provide advice, for example recommending a waiting period before taking on a new role – however it has no power to block new appointments.

Labour have already said they would abide by any recommendation Acoba makes.

On Saturday, Conservative peer Lord Francis Maude, who worked with Ms Gray when he was a minister, wrote to the Times to defend the proposed appointment.

“I never had the slightest reason to question either her integrity or her political impartiality,” he said.

“She is not the first civil servant to move into a political role, and will not be the last. We should be as relaxed about this as we should be about people who have had previous political involvement coming into the civil service.”

Ms Gray joined the civil service in the 1970s and has held a number of senior positions, including head of the government’s propriety and ethics team.

Polly Mackenzie – who worked as a special adviser in the Cabinet Office – previously told the BBC in 2017: “Sue has been there for so long, she knows everything that anybody has ever done wrong.”

Writing in his memoirs, former Liberal Democrat minister David Laws recalls being told that the country “is actually entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray… unless she agrees, things just don’t happen”.

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