Taking up position as Starmer’s chief of staff is wrong, Gray told

Civil Service impartiality row over partygate investigator’s relationship with the Labour leader

‘Ethically and morally, this is certainly ironic considering she was head of the propriety and ethics team’

SUE GRAY faced a growing clamour last night not to take up her role with Sir Keir Starmer after it emerged the pair had known each other for more than a decade.

The former civil servant, who carried out an inquiry into lockdown parties during Boris Johnson’s time in Downing Street, resigned on Thursday to take up a role as the Labour leader’s chief of staff.

Tory critics demanded that she turn down the job and said that if she refused to do so, it would do great harm to the Civil Service’s reputation for impartiality.

Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, said the findings of Ms Gray’s inquiry into Downing Street lockdown parties could not be relied upon “until we know how long Sue Gray has had a personal relationship with Keir Starmer and for how long they have been discussing Sue going to work for him as his most trusted and important adviser”.

Last night the Labour Party refused to say how long Sir Keir had been courting Ms Gray to take up the role, although they admitted the pair had known each other since he was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 and 2013.

One government source told The Daily Telegraph that Ms Gray had not declared any meetings with Labour in the past few weeks.

The watchdog Acoba, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, said it had written to Ms Gray to ask why she had not yet approached them about the new position.

Acoba, which considers new roles for former MPS and senior officials, can recommend a period of gardening leave before someone takes on a new job, but has no power to impose its views. Similarly, the Prime Minister cannot block an appointment.

Ms Dorries told The Telegraph: “At the very least, she should not take up this appointment. Whether or not she has legally breached any rules, I don’t know. But ethically and morally, this is certainly ironic considering she was head of the propriety and ethics team.

“I think Whitehall’s in shock, to be frank. I know civil servants and permanent secretaries are. Civil servants and ministers work together, civil servants work completely impartially and neutrally. The fact she’s just blown that relationship apart today is just incredibly damaging to our Civil Service, but also incredibly damaging to our constitution and the reason things work so well in this country.”

Tory MP Richard Drax said: “Civil servants are meant to be strictly impartial, and suddenly she’s coming out as nailing her colours to the light. You wouldn’t work for a party unless you believe in what they stand for.”

Making a point of order in the Commons, Lia Nici, a Conservative MP, said there were “serious constitutional concerns”.

“It’s always been understood that members of this House should be able to work with senior civil servants, knowing that they can talk freely and openly with senior civil servants, and know that they are impartial, and that they are not linked to any political party,” she said.

Simon Clarke, the former levellingup secretary, wrote on Twitter: “It’s just a deeply unwise appointment, and damaging to the Civil Service in a way all parties should care about.”

Speaking to Sky News yesterday, Sir Keir declined to say when he had first approached Ms Gray to take over as chief of staff. “I think it has been known for some time that I have been looking for a chief of staff and I am very focused on what it is I need,” he said.

Last year, in an interview with LBC Radio, the Labour leader said: “Full disclosure, I know Sue Gray because [when] I was director of public prosecutions she was a senior civil servant so I know her personally. Let me just be clear about that.

“She has got huge integrity and huge respect and I don’t think you would ever meet anyone who has worked with her who would say otherwise.”

Alex Thomas, a former civil servant who now works at the Institute for Government think tank, said Ms Gray’s appointment was “unusual” and raised “tricky questions for the Civil Service”.