Labour is fighting crony and freebie allegations on principle – Wes Streeting says handing over tens of thousands worth of free stuff to Cabinet Ministers is like giving to charity. Apart from when it’s handed to Tories…
Sue Gray’s son, who happens to be an MP as of the election, has been fighting the issue on his own turf. He received £44,000 in donations last year…
Liam Conlon has been heroically fighting for the right to take a freebie holiday after a local street sweeper Paul Spiers was blocked from accepting a community-donated trip to Portugal. Over £3,000 was raised on GoFundMe for the jaunt, which his employer Veolia on the grounds that it would have been in breach of its contract with Bromley Council. The new MP has argued to the council that “it is only fair” that hard work should be rewarded with a holiday, and the donation wouldn’t violate the “council’s high ethical standards.” His mum must be proud…
Read Conlon’s spirited defence of freebie-giving below:
While Starmer launches an inquiry into all the negative briefings about Sue Gray, Harriet Harman has been running defence. Just like she did for Ian Corfield…
Harman on Newsnight naturally blamed the entire saga on the fact that her mate Sue is an “older woman“:
“I think there is something about an older woman in authority that some young men find hard to put up with… I feel very annoyed with them and I think they’re breaking the ministerial code and they shouldn’t be doing it.”
Harman admonishes SpAds who’ve had their salaries cut by Gray for “moaning about their pay and trying to show her in a bad light“. If Starmer wants to “clamp down” on the anti-Gray briefer he might end up sacking half of his own government…
Labour spent their time in opposition on a moral crusade, wagging their fingers at Tory “cronyism” and promising they’d be the ones to “clean up politics.” Though Starmer’s lofty pledges to govern “with openness and transparency in everything we do” are not ageing well…
After 76 days in power, the Cabinet Office’s list of SpAd interests still hasn’t been published. Maybe Sue Gray (on £170,000-a-year salary) and her slow appointments of SpAds — is to blame for the delay…
In the past, these lists have revealed commercial ties and side gigs of SpAds. So, it’ll be interesting to see given current events – if and when Labour finally releases it – especially with some whispers suggesting advisers are being part funded by Labour-linked advisory firms. One for the transparency Starmer preaches, surely…
In the latest chapter of Labour’s cronyism saga, Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray is now pocketing a staggering £170,000 – £3,000 more than the Prime Minister himself. According to the BBC, Gray demanded the princely sum and ignored advice to take a few thousand less to ‘dodge this very story’…
Not only does Gray’s salary dwarf that of her Tory predecessor Liam Booth-Smith, she previously led the crusade for austerity in adviser pay. Back in 2016, while she was at the Cabinet Office, she spearheaded the policy to cap SpAd salaries at £72,000—though she pushed for them to be even lower. Now she’s raking in 236% of the salary cap she enforced…
A Tory source tells Guido:
“The hypocrisy of Sue Gray taking the highest ever SpAd salary – after years of cutting Tory spad pay at every opportunity and persecuting generations of Tory advisers – is a new level of reality.”
Hypocrisy from Labour comrades is a theme that seems never ending…
The Tories are asking questions about Sue’s salary:
The McSweeneyites are seething…
It’s trouble in paradise for Labour as Starmer’s Chief of Staff Sue Gray continues to cause conflict within Downing Street. Guido hears SpAds still haven’t been able to sign their official contracts, causing further frustration and fury among aides. As one Whitehall insider remarked, “they better get on with it”…
SpAds have reportedly decided to unionise following complaints of pay cuts and work overload as many departments seem to have fewer aides than they did under the Tories. The recent public sector pay raises may have given some inspiration…
While Number 10 denies that Gray is involved in setting SpAd terms and pay, it’s no secret that frustrations with their roles are directed at her. SpAds have labelled Gray a “control freak,” blaming her for the delays in formal contract approvals. Still, it seems they are making the most of the hold up by upping negotiations. Until then, Labour aides will have to make do with working under strict probationary terms instead…
It’s no wonder that the Cabinet Office was as keen as possible to avoid confirming Jess Sargeant’s appointment to Guido. Labour is scrambling to spin the appointment of a party-aligned staffer to a senior position in the Propriety and Constitution Unit as fine.
When Sue Gray led the same unit she used it to become “one of the most powerful civil servants in the UK” overseeing the probe into and removal of Cabinet Office Minister Damian Green. Guido hears Sargeant “just turned up one morning” around two weeks ago having been given the job without external advertisement. One Cabinet Office source tells Guido she is not even on the internal department database – a hurried insertion into the role from the very top. Hardly suggests the government has an established system of “firewalls” and protections in place to limit Sargeant’s access…
Labour last night hastily cobbled together a line claiming that Sargeant will be “confined to constitutional matters” using “firewalls” to ensure she is “not involved in any propriety casework, inquiries or investigations.” As Deputy Director in the small Propriety and Constitution Unit, Sargeant will work in an office with some of the broadest access in the Civil Service:
Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds had staff secondments worth £35,522 from Sargeant’s Labour Together campaign in the last year – effectively laundering money from Lord Sainsbury who gave £300,000 to the campaign. Sainsbury also funds the Institute for (Big) Government where Sargeant worked before Labour Together. Arguably her new boss was beholden financially to the Labour Party donor who financed her last two jobs. You might perceive this financial link as a manifest conflict of interest…
Guido’s attention has been directed by Civil Service experts to paragraph 7.1 of the Ministerial Code which makes it clear that “Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise.” When will the investigation into itself by the Propriety and Constitution unit begin?
UPDATE: Cabinet Office source says Jessica Sargeant will not be “Deputy Director of the Propriety and Constitution Unit”. Job title now unclear.
