DAN HODGES: Starmer has to show who runs the country by sacking this one key figure
Sir Keir Starmer needs to sack Sue Gray. And he needs to do it quickly.
In the space of six short weeks, his power-hungry Chief of Staff has driven a wedge between the Prime Minister and the Security Services, the wider civil service, his own Cabinet and other senior members of team.
She has begun to construct an independent cabinet operating outside of the existing Downing Street structures. She has attempted to promote her own agenda, and her own profile.
And because of this, every day Starmer waits will see his authority, and that of his fledgling administration, eroded further.
In April, Starmer issued a warning that briefings from Gray’s ‘allies’ against his long-standing aides – in particular his head of political strategy, Morgan McSweeney – should cease, on pain of dismissal. But the simmering tensions have boiled over into government.
Within days of taking power, Labour insiders began to express concern at Gray’s overbearing approach.
A Cabinet Minister told me a log-jam was developing at the heart of Downing Street, with basic decisions not being taken because of Gray’s insistence at having final sign-off. Civil servants were said to be raising similar concerns. It then emerged that Gray had taken personal control of new ministerial appointments, which again created significant delays. In the end, it took a week for all the posts to be filled.
Journalists began to receive briefings that it was Gray – rather than Starmer or senior Cabinet Ministers – who was drawing up plans for the Government’s early legislative programme.
‘Starmer’s Chief of Staff, Sue Gray, has 20 bills to introduce within the new government’s first 100 days,’ Bloomberg reported. This was quickly followed by reports Gray had begun waging war on McSweeney via the No 10 seating plan, with his desk twice being repositioned further from Starmer’s office. She had also reportedly attempted to deny McSweeney access to an important internal Government IT system. All of this may sound like the normal jostling for position that accompanies the establishment of any new administration. But it is far, far more serious.
Last week, The Mail on Sunday reported Gray had actively prevented senior security officers briefing the Prime Minister on a major national security threat. As a Whitehall source explained: ‘It has got to the point where we have said that the PM needs to be given an intelligence briefing and Gray has said: “Tell me”. But we need to know that it has reached him.’ The source added: ‘She thinks she runs the country.’
She does think that. And what’s more, she has form.
One former Tory Minister who once worked with Gray praised her and her tenacity
I have spoken to a number of sources who had worked with Gray, and within the different government departments she served in as a senior mandarin, prior to her defection to Starmer’s party.
According to one, ‘she used to deliberately withhold information from Ministers, including sensitive security briefings. She wanted to be in the position where she controlled the flow of the information. That way, she could influence the important decisions.’
Another source told me: ‘She was building her own clique of civil servants. She was basically grooming people. She’s been building up her own powerbase for years.’
Again, such sniping is all part of the Westminster game. But what is remarkable is the apparent speed with which Gray has turned huge swathes of the Whitehall security and political establishment against her.
Labour insiders I spoke to point to two incidents which they believe should have given Starmer warning his Chief of Staff was going to cause him problems.
One was a mundane meeting Labour strategists held to discuss the design of the party’s campaign literature. ‘Sue began complaining it had too many Union Jacks on it,’ one source recalled, ‘and everyone started looking at each other saying “but that’s an important part of our branding”. She genuinely couldn’t understand. She thought it was “divisive”. That was when the alarm bells started going off. Until then, we’d been told she was an impressive operator.’
A second was when Gray started to try to ingratiate herself with female members of the then Shadow Cabinet by telling them she would deal with ‘The Boys’, who she claimed were building an unnecessarily macho culture around Starmer.
‘She began stirring things up,’ one Minister explained. ‘She was saying “these lads who sit there with their feet on their desks, briefing the papers – they think they can tell you what to do. Well don’t worry. I’m going to clip their wings”.’
Long-serving party workers who had been in the trenches with Starmer for years found her approach deeply insulting.
‘She’d only been in post a few weeks, and she was trying to carve people out,’ one Labour MP told me. ‘It really got a lot of people’s backs up.’
Not everyone has such a negative view. One former Tory Minister who once worked with Gray praised her and her tenacity. ‘She’s got a very candid style,’ he told me, ‘and if she rates someone, she’ll be loyal and supportive. If she doesn’t, she won’t be afraid of showing it.’
But the reality is Gray was brought in to help Starmer smoothly and calmly navigate the corridors of power. And she’s instead spent her first month in No 10 frantically barricading the doors and piling furniture against the windows.
Yes, there may be one or two malcontents inside government who have an agenda against her. But there are simply too many people expressing concern about Gray’s management style for her to be an innocent victim of a vendetta.
The Prime Minister needs to face facts. His Chief of Staff is supposed to be his most senior trouble-shooter
Security officials. Senior civil servants. Cabinet Ministers. No 10 aides. MPs. They can’t all have independently decided ‘I’m bored. I know. I’ll make up something nasty about Sue Gray.’
The Prime Minister needs to face facts. His Chief of Staff is supposed to be his most senior trouble-shooter. But just over a month into office she’s already become more trouble than she’s worth. Because we all know how this ends. Alastair Campbell. Andy Coulson. Dom Cummings. When the adviser becomes the story, it’s only a matter of time before they are forced out. And their departure is always messy, destabilising and damaging to the government and Prime Minister they pledged to serve.
So Starmer should just short-circuit the process. He should save himself a lot of pain and trouble by taking the decision now. Dump Gray, reassert his authority and regain control of his government.
Sue Gray thinks she runs the country. Sir Keir Starmer must demonstrate she doesn’t.
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