Who watches the watchmen? That’s the question Whitehall is asking after chief panjandrum and sleazebuster extraordinaire Sue Gray’s was offered the job of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. The revelation that Gray might not necessarily be quite the bastion of perfect probity has sent shock waves through SW1 – not least in the upper ranks of the senior civil service. Susan Acland-Hood, the permanent secretary at the Department of Education, was so concerned by news of Gray’s appointment on Thursday that she reportedly raised concerns in an online Zoom call with colleagues.
According to the Telegraph, Acland-Hood reminded other officials about their duty to impartiality, concluding with a firm warning that ‘if anybody receives contact from the Leader of the Opposition or a member of the Shadow Cabinet you should tell your permanent secretary right away.’ She reportedly went through the civil service’s code on impartiality line by line, telling colleagues:
You have to act in a way that deserves and retains the confidence of ministers while at the same time ensuring that you will be able to establish the same relationship with those who you may be required to serve in some future government. All I will say is I think that there is a real challenge to acting in a way that deserves and retains the confidence of ministers for someone so senior to go so quickly to a position in this way. I don’t really understand how this can possibly have happened without there being contact in advance which you shouldn’t be having without reporting it.
And it’s those concerns about the manner of the appointment that is at the centre of debate in Westminster today. It seems that those in government are less concerned about Gray’s past work in the Partygate probe than how she came to be tapped up by the Opposition to run Sir Keir’s office. Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that ‘Sue Gray was always going to be on the list when we knew there was a vacancy’ – news to, er, Tory ministers to say the least.
Under government appointment rules, Gray will have to explain later today to the Cabinet Office watchdog just when exactly an approach by Labour was made – was it days, weeks or months ago? Sir Keir Starmer was notably cagey on the subject on Friday, refusing to give a date to broadcasters when asked about Gray’s appointment. But the Labour leader has been looking for a new chief of staff since at least November, when Mr S broke the news that he was interested in hiring a top civil servant. Just how long has Gray been interested in the job? And why didn’t she inform colleagues straight away?
It’s not like she can say she wasn’t aware of the propriety rules…
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