SUE Gray has stepped down as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and will take up a new role as an envoy for the nations and regions.
She is a career civil servant and became a household name in early 2022 when she published the partygate investigation which lifted the lid on lockdown rule-breaking in Downing Street during the pandemic.
Why is has she resigned?
Gray lasted just four months as Keir Starmer's chief of staff, having kept the title from her period in opposition with Labour.
Downing Street chief of staff is a powerful position at the heart of government, acting as the PM’s closest adviser and overseeing the development of policy and political strategy.
Gray’s brief spell in the role was dogged by controversy with her internal opponents briefing against her to the press.
She was accused of micromanaging her subordinates, limiting her main rival Morgan McSweeney’s access to the Downing Street operation.
Tensions increased when it was leaked to the press that Gray was paid more than the Prime Minister – while civil servants were unhappy that she had forced them into taking effective pay cuts.
McSweeney, who master minded both Starmer’s election as Labour leader and the General Election victory earlier this year, was widely thought to have been behind much of the briefing against Gray.
He has replaced her in the role of chief of staff, while she takes on a new position as envoy for the nations and regions, which the Government.
In her resignation letter, Gray said she was stepping down because of the “intense commentary” in the media about her which she said was becoming a “distraction” to the Government.
What did she do before partygate?
Gray joined the civil service in the 1970s and worked for the Government for most of her career before her move to the Labour Party last year.
She took a break during the height of the Troubles to run the Cove Bar in the Northern Irish border town of Newry.
In the 1990s, she moved to the Cabinet Office. During her time there, she was involved in the Coalition government’s so-called “bonfire of the quangos”.
Gray also investigated the then-Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell (above) after he was accused of calling a police officer a “pleb” and the allegations of sexual harassment against former senior minister Damian Green.
In his memoirs, former LibDem minister David Laws said that Britain “is actually entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray, the head of ethics or something in the Cabinet Office – unless she agrees, things just don't happen”.
She held a job at the Northern Ireland Executive between 2018 and 2021 when she returned to the Cabinet Office.
Anything else?
Gray got a rap on the knuckles from the appointments watchdog after she was found to have failed to declare getting a job offer from Labour.
Her son, Liam Conlon, was elected to Parliament in July as the Labour MP for Beckenham and Penge in south London. He received a £10,000 donation from controversial Labour peer Waheed Alli to help his campaign.
