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Good morning. We’re back waiting for the Sue Gray report. Today’s version will take the form of a written statement for a Cabinet Office minister described on the Commons order paper as an “update into the circumstances leading to the resignation of a senior civil servant”. This is the investigation ordered by the government into whether Gray, who had been a very senior civil servant as well as the author of the Partygate report, broke civil service rules by negotiating a move to become Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. In the past other senior officials have left the civil service to work for an opposition party, but Gray’s move was particularly controversial because news of her departure leaked before she had even resigned, and before she had told the civil service what she was doing.
At the weekend the Mail on Sunday reported that the inquiry into her departure was expected to say she broke civil service rules. It said:
Insiders told The Mail on Sunday they expect the Cabinet Office to conclude she breached the code on the grounds of ‘impartiality’, because she was involved in secret discussions with Labour when she was conducting sensitive meetings with Ministers; of ‘honesty’, because Ministers were in the dark over the talks; and of ‘integrity’, because her professionalism could be called into question.
Sue Gray held secret talks with Sir Keir Starmer while working for the team advising the Commons partygate investigation, a report is set to reveal …
A report by the Cabinet Office is on Tuesday expected to find that she entered negotiations with Labour while she was working with the department’s Propriety and Ethics Team (PET). At the time the team was advising MPs on the privileges committee investigating Boris Johnson, which Tory sources said on Monday presented a conflict of interest.
Firstly, I had no discussions with [Sue Gray] while she was investigating Boris Johnson [over Partygate] whatsoever. I don’t think anybody is suggesting that that is the case.
I’m confident that she hasn’t broken any of the rules.
What I’d say to the government is, if you’re listening to people across the country, they’re not talking about Sue Gray. They’re talking about not being able to pay the bills. For heaven’s sake, talk about the issue which is of central concern to, I would have thought, most people watching this.
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