Lobby journalists are rightfully confused about Sue Gray’s new completely made-up role as the PM’s “Envoy for the Nations and Regions.” Hilariously Downing Street is still today not commenting on whether she will attend the Council of Nations and Regions meeting in Scotland tomorrow. If she doesn’t go to those then what actually is her job?
Guido hears it’s bedlam inside No 10 over this as Sue is in reality spending her time battling for a huge severance package and salary for her new role. The Cabinet Office is said to be resisting as approval for her demands needs to come from the top – Gray is not entitled to the level of severance she is demanding. No wonder the government refused to tell Guido what severance she’d be paid, say what salary she’ll be on, or indeed what her role actually is – they have no idea…
A Downing Street source tells Guido: “They just need to end it, send her to the Lords and move on. We’re all sick of her continuing to dominate things – she has been sacked. So why are we all indulging her?” Hell hath no fury like a Sue scorned…
UPDATE: Gray will not attend the inaugural meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions tomorrow. So much for her “vital role” in strengthening our relations with the regions and nations that Starmer was supposedly so “delighted” by…
UPDATE II: Presuming Gray was on a regular SpAd contract with 4 months probation, she would not be entitled to severance pay. It would need to be publicly approved from the top…
Boris has done a long interview with Wilfred Frost on Sky News. Apart from pointing out that the public ‘craved’ lockdown rules, Boris had a few words about his old chum Sue Gray:
“I appointed Sue Gray, who then turned out to be the Chief of Staff leader of the Labour Party – RIP… “
Boris issued his analysis of the current Downing Street implosion:
“At the time that I asked her to do that particular job, she had presented to me as a model of political impartiality and propriety, and I’m not certain about either of those things…. I thought it was always looking a bit dodgy – her position was probably going to be untenable ever since it emerged that her son had taken money from Waheed Alli, and that she’d then given Waheed Alli a pass to No 10. I thought that was probably going to end in the way that it has.”
Cronies gonna crony…
Questions are swirling around Gray’s departure from her £170,000 post in Downing Street. The government is refusing to say whether Morgan McSweeney will also be paid more than the PM as new Chief of Staff…
A Cabinet Office source reckons Gray won’t get a SpAd severance payment because she’s shifting to another role in government. Guido finds it hard to believe she won’t be given something like a three-month sweetener…
It has been confirmed at today’s Lobby briefing that Gray’s demotion to an advisory role will be a direct ministerial appointment to the Cabinet Office, and therefore subject to pay. They are usually reserved for part-time projects, though Downing Street’s spokesman refused to say if her role is time-limited. She’s firmly ensconced in the Civil Service…
That means Gray will keep on getting her Civil Service perks. Downing Street’s spokesman also refuses to say if Gray will be given a peerage. That’d be another £332 per day…
Sue Gray has unceremoniously been ousted from Number 10, after nearly three decades of being in the civil service, and just three months into her role as Chief of Staff. She’s been given the new role of Prime Minister’s envoy for the “regions and nations”, aptly described by Tory MP Simon Hoare as “a bit like the Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief’s Chief Assistant.” The ‘most powerful woman in Britain’ no more…
To add salt to the wound for Gray, she’ll be taking a pay cut from her hard-negotiated £170,000 salary. And for her first outing, she’ll be shipped 500 miles from London to Scotland (exact location unknown) to attend the first Council of the Nations and Regions meeting this Friday, discussing the “shared challenges” and “opportunities” across the UK. One week in to her new job, she’s literally been sent as far away from Whitehall as possible…
UPDATE: Starmer’s spokesman refuses to confirm if Gray is even on the list for Friday’s meeting in Scotland.
As Starmer walked into No 10 back in July you could hear the collective chest-puffing of left-wing pundits everywhere. Years, if not decades, of stable, adult government awaited them…
93 days later and Downing Street seem to have conducted a speed run of scandal. Ending with the undignified departure of Sue Gray…
Those pundits must be feeling hot under the collar today. Here are their highlights:
It turns out Krishnan doesn’t have to worry about that after all. Soubry struck the same note…
Andrew Marr said: “For the first time in many of our lives, actually Britain looks like a little haven of peace and stability”. The Guardian’s John Crace said: “The grownups are back in Westminster. The Tory psychodramas inside No 10 have been replaced by a serious Labour government focused on delivery. It’s going to take time for all of us to make the adjustment.” Meanwhile unpaid Starmer propagandist Ian Dunt isn’t taking the news so well…
Beth Rigby might have to start reporting on something other than Starmer’s views on football and Angela Rayner’s clothing accessories:
James O’Brien naturally went on about how the “grown ups are back in charge.” It’s a sad day for Labour superfan Marina Purkiss too. No doubt Starmer’s sacking of Gray will soon be hailed as a masterstroke worthy of such a serious and adult politician…
When the Lord Alli scandal first broke – over his acquisition of a Downing Street pass – Labour’s explanation was that the donor was “doing some transition work with us.” The key word suggesting the transition between opposition and government…
Close to a general election, the main opposition party is offered a series of secret handover talks with senior officials – designed to prepare them should they win. Guido hears from multiple well-placed sources that some of those talks took place at Lord Alli’s properties, potentially including his extravagant penthouse. Confidential government handover work carried out in a political donor’s property…
The attendees would have included Keir Starmer, Sue Gray, and Simon Case. The meetings took place in the rough six month period before the election. On at least one occasion other officials are said to have been present, including Gray ally Darren Tierney, who has run the Propriety and Ethics (now Propriety and Constitution) Group in the Cabinet Office since March 2021, though reports are unconfirmed. Government business taking place at a top donor’s house would be highly irregular, especially given the sensitive nature of the talks…
It’s well-known that the confidential access talks “usually happen away from departments” – that is understood to usually mean a low key neutral meeting space. Not the luxury penthouses of ultra-rich, heavily politically-involved donors who will go on to gain access to Downing Street…
The properties are said to be one of the Labour leadership’s favourite bolt holes for high-level confidential meetings. Guido asked the Cabinet Office if any of the talks took place at his property to which a government spokesman said: “We don’t comment on access talks.” That is not a denial…
