A TIDAL WAVE OF FURY
NADINE DORRIES (former culture
secretary): ‘Sue Gray’s appointment completely invalidates her Partygate report and shows that there was a deep laid plot to get rid of Boris Johnson. The former PM accepted her two reports on the strict understanding that she was impartial.’
JACOB REES-MOGG (former business secretary): ‘So much for an impartial Civil Service, the Gray report now looks like a Left-wing stitch up against a Tory prime minister.’
BRENDAN CLARKE-SMITH (former parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office): ‘I am genuinely shocked to see this. After the events of last year, people will quite understandably be questioning the appropriateness of this appointment, including issues of impartiality surrounding Partygate.’
SIMON CLARKE (former levelling up secretary):
‘This is extraordinary news. Sue Gray has a long history of public service, but to move into such a significant political post given her pivotal role in events over the last year will raise a whole host of questions. Neutrality stood at the core of her credibility.’
ALEXANDER STAFFORD (Tory party vice-chairman): ‘The Civil Service is meant to be impartial and above party politics. A very dodgy decision by Labour and Keir and it needs to be rejected to protect the integrity of our Civil Service.’
EDDIE HUGHES (former levelling up minister): ‘As a former minister at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities when Sue was there, I’m incredibly disappointed to read this. The supposed neutrality of the Civil service is completely undermined by a switch like this.’
CRAIG MACKINLAY (Tory MP): ‘I’m bound to be partisan, but I defended independence of this civil servant on her Partygate brief last year. Her dossier will form a key part of the Privileges Committee work to determine the parliamentary career of a Conservative colleague. Does this smell right?’
PAUL BRISTOW (Tory MP): ‘This would be a laughable appointment if the optics weren’t so serious.
It raises question about the impartiality of our entire senior Civil Service. Anyone who cares about this should be concerned with this appointment. Wrong on so many levels.’
MARCO LONGHI (Tory MP): ‘Wow. So much for impartiality. We now know the true motivations behind the investigation. There is a real stench to this.’
LEE ANDERSON (Tory party deputy chairman): ‘The impartial Civil Service, eh? Whichever way you look at this, it just does not seem right. Or does it?’
ANDREA LEADSOM (former business secretary): ‘Surely not? How can the ex-head of propriety and ethics jump into a political role, in opposition to the government she just served? With no break? Seriously?’
PETER BONE (former Commons deputy leader):
‘You have got to be joking!’
FRIEND OF BORIS JOHNSON: ‘Starmer appointing Sue Gray as his Chief of Staff reveals what many have suspected all along: Partygate was a deliberate and manufactured plot to oust a Brexit-backing Conservative prime minister. The validity of the Sue Gray investigation and its findings is now completely destroyed.’