Keir Starmer’s previous special advisor and chief of staff Sue Gray resigned on October 6 2024, just shy of a week before the symbolic 100 days since the political map of the United Kingdom turned red. Who is this player in British politics, and why does her resignation matter?
Prior to joining Starmer’s team in September 2023, Gray worked in the Civil Service for over thirty years. She rose to become the Second Permanent Secretary in the Cabinet Office, one of the higher ranking roles within the service. She became a household name during this time when she was leading the investigation of the infamous Partygate scandal under Boris Johnson, which resulted in her publishing a report on 31 January 2022. The reports exposed details of law-breaching gatherings that were attended by senior members of the Conservative government over lockdown. The papers questioned the integrity of the Conservative Party over their handling of the COVID-19 crisis in Britain, which can easily be summed up in the statement “many will be dismayed that behaviour of this kind took place on this scale at the heart of Government”.
Since the report was released, Gray has played a prominent political role, being appointed as Chief of Staff for Keir Starmer in September 2023 and formally joining the Labour party in November 2023. She has remained a centre-piece of Starmer’s close circle, acting as top advisor throughout his general election campaign. Politicians need special advisors (SPADs) for a number of reasons – but in essence their role is advising and assisting government ministers. However they also aid in handling media relations and public messaging; ironically Gray accredited her resignation from the role to the “intense media commentary” about her salary. Moreover, it has been made apparent that Gray made some enemies during her short time in the Labour Party.
Just before her resignation from her role as Chief of Staff, Sue Gray’s salary of £170,000 a year was leaked to the BBC, clearly a significant catalyst in her resignation. But why do people care so much about how much she earned? One common complaint from special advisors is they often feel they are not paid enough. Evidently, this is not the case in Gray’s position. In fact, it is thought that her generous £170k annual salary leaves her the highest paid advisor in history.
This salary is about a £25,000 jump from the previous Conservative advisor for Rishi Sunak, Lord Booth Smith. Perhaps more crucially, this figure is over £3,000 more than the PM himself earns per year. Although we do not know the identity of the person who leaked her salary, it can’t help but be asked – was this an act of her enemies to topple the Gray Empire for good?
The result of this has landed Gray in the firing line, managing to outrage both Labour and Conservative party members. Discontent has run rife in Parliament following the salary reveal, with MPs taking to social media and news outlets to vocalise their grievances on the matter over since the leak. Rumours of tensions between Gray and Morgan McSweeney had also been circling prior to the resignation – a source told the Guardian “one or both of them will have to go. It’s not going to be Morgan”.
Sue Gray’s personality had also been attacked by insiders, with claims that her micromanaging traits had caused her to overreach in her role, leading to hostility from some within the Labour Party. It is apparent that the salary leak was the final straw for Gray.
Gray’s downfall shows her entire position as Chief of Staff was controversial. As someone who worked for thirty years in the Civil Service, where impartiality is an indispensable feature of the job, Gray’s appointment to a senior position within the party-appointed part of government undermined the legitimacy of the Civil Service as a whole. Building trust in government should be a number one priority for Starmer at a time where it is at an all-time low – Starmer campaigned on restoring this very trust.
What does Gray’s resignation as Chief of Staff reveal about the stability and competency of the new Labour government? Shining such a severely unfavourable light on the Labour Party this early on is a nightmare for the newly elected Prime Minister. The resignation and all the controversy surrounding it occurred just four days after we learned the hugely humiliating story of Starmer being in receipt of more than £100,000 of freebies and gifts. After four long years as Leader of the Opposition, you would think that all that time spent waiting and the lessons learned from the Conservative’s mistakes would lead to a competent, well-planned government. However this saga has demonstrated quite the opposite.
If there is one key takeaway from the Conservative’s last term in office, it is the public’s imperative to hold the government to the highest standards. Although three months is not long to be making definitive judgements, this debacle leaves us to wonder whether the Labour Party will ever be able to beat allegations of disunity and incompetency. Especially after the donations scandal, it is now in Starmer’s vital interest to prove to the general public that the Labour Party is capable to lead this country into a more positive and prosperous future after its somewhat disastrous start.
We will always have political advisors in the wings of the government and Parliament, but the alienation that Sue Gray has caused is classic SPAD overreach that British political history has seen time and time again.
