The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA) has reportedly cleared Sue Gray to begin working as Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff in the autumn. Despite the Cabinet Office recommending a year-long ban with a further six month block on contacting the government, The Times reports she’s been handed just six months’ gardening leave from the point of quitting earlier this year. She’ll be free to join Labour well in advance of the election and in time for Labour Party Conference. Starmer won’t be waiting for Sue Gray quite as long as expected…
This is of course despite the fact she was in contact with Labour while still in post as a civil servant, and while still involved in the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Ethics team. Six months from the point of leaving, given her involvement in top-level government discussions, is generous to say the least…
Boris’s spokesperson has released a new statement claiming all his WhatsApps and notebooks have already been handed to the Cabinet Office “in full and unredacted form” and was given to them months ago. Yesterday the Cabinet Office claimed they didn’t have any…
“All Boris Johnson’s material – including WhatsApps and notebooks – requested by the Covid Inquiry has been handed to the Cabinet Office in full and in unredacted form. While Mr Johnson understands the government’s position, and does not seek to contradict it, he is perfectly happy for the Inquiry to have access to this material in whatever form it requires […] The Cabinet Office has had access to this material for several months.”
What’s in there that the Cabinet Office doesn’t want released? The ball is in their court ahead of the deadline…
The Covid inquiry has shifted the Cabinet Office’s deadline to hand over Boris’s notes and WhatsApp messages by 48 hours. The initial deadline was 4 p.m. this afternoon – now it’s set for Thursday. Despite an initial request to delay it until at least 5th June…
Either way, the Cabinet Office insists it doesn’t even have the WhatsApps in the first place. The Inquiry’s announcement this morning says:
“…the Inquiry was informed that the Cabinet Office does not have in its possession either Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages or Mr Johnson’s notebooks, as sought in the original section 21 Notice […] the section 21 Notice has been varied so that if theCabinet Office maintains its position that it does not hold specified materials, it mustprovide in substitute a witness statement from a senior civil servant, verified by a statement of truth…”
Ministers claimed yesterday that handing over “unambiguously irrelevant” documents would be a “serious intrusion of privacy”. Now apparently the Cabinet Office doesn’t actually have them…
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Boris tells Guido:
“Mr Johnson has no objection to disclosing material to the Inquiry. He has done so and will continue to do so. The decision to challenge the Inquiry’s position on redactions is for the Cabinet Office.”
Yesterday afternoon, the government got round to publishing their written response over the resignation of Sue Gray. Despite prior briefing that the update would outline the findings of the Cabinet Office’s review into her departure – including the conclusion that she broke the Civil Service Management Code – the statement made no such allegations. In a short update, Dowden did make clear “Ms Gray was given the opportunity to make representations as part of this process but chose not to do so”. The Times reports this came about after she repeatedly questioned the standing of the inquiry. Shouldn’t a former civil servant have more respect for the work of government…
According to The Sun, the Cabinet Office were able to search Sue’s emails and late interventions from Whitehall lawyers were the only reason insiders removed lines accusing Gray of rule-breaking. One source adds “The fact that Sue Gray is refusing to cooperate tells you all you need to know about this grubby deal”. After all the backroom dealings and obfuscation, the full report has been submitted to ACOBA, which will make its own conclusions and could recommend a waiting period of up to two years before she can take up her new position. All the while Keir “Mr Rules” Starmer is showing a similar absence of transparency, as he still refuses to say when contact began.
Co-conspirators can read the full text of Dowden’s statement below:
Ed Lucas has a new piece in The Times this morning complaining about the Cabinet Office’s “positively Soviet” vetting process for civil service guest speakers. According to Lucas, ever since then-Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg introduced the policy of scanning the social media profiles of potential speakers last Summer, “respected guest speakers are being barred from Whitehall”. Apparently Lucas’s own friend failed vetting and was met with this explanation:
“Rules introduced by the Cabinet Office in 2022 specify that the social media accounts of potential speakers must be vetted . . . to check whether these people have ever criticised government officials or government policy. The vetting process is impartial and purely evidence-based. The check on your social media has identified material that criticises government officials and policy. It is for this reason . . . that I am afraid that we have no choice and must cancel your invitation.”
Lucas, who is standing as a candidate for the LibDems, admits his friend volunteers “at a local Anglican church and votes Liberal Democrat” – two red flags for a start. Given how Whitehall had a history of inviting in witches, Green socialists and hard-left academics before these rules, Guido’s not so sure of the friend’s likely suitability. In fact, Guido claims Rees-Mogg’s vetting policy as our own campaign victory. There are dozens of stories in our archives reporting on the kind of topics Civil Servants love to be lectured on during working hours: everything from “white awareness“ to the healing properties of crystals. All at the taxpayer’s expense…
Cabinet Office sources told Guido this morning that”some due diligence” has to take place to stop this nonsense happening again, pointing out they “wouldn’t want to invite people who have expressed antisemitic views for example“. Labour’s “former choice for Home Secretary probably wouldn’t get a call up”, they added…
From long covid and strikes, to two millennia of stress-related sick days, we all know civil servants will take any excuse for time off. Well, today Guido reveals the simplest way for Whitehall employees who are averse to work to avoid it. In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Cabinet Office spelled out their policies for annual leave, and employees going through gender reassignment get an especially good deal:
“Up to 13 weeks special leave with pay may be considered for absences directly related to gender reassignment or intersex variations, in any 12-month rolling period.”
To repeat, that is 13 weeks, or three months, per year.
The obvious question is: how does the Cabinet Office define gender reassignment? Could a civil servant identify one way one year and another the next – just to claim their three months? Could they come up with a new medical procedure to go through every year? Guido would forgive co-conspirators for thinking this was just another case of the government failing to get a grip of their work-shy employees. It is not. Whilst trans employees get 13 weeks per year, paternity leave is 12 days. And for disability related leave… just 5 days.
