Labour was the party under pressure in an urgent question in the Commons. This is not normally the order of things: it is usually the opposition or a disgruntled backbencher who tables the question, and an irritated-looking junior minister who is sent out to bat defensively on behalf of their beleaguered seniors. But today, the urgent question was from Robert Buckland, a supporter of Rishi Sunak, and it was about whether Sue Gray and the Labour party followed the rules around civil service appointments. Tory MPs were so interested to hear the answer that a multitude of them had tabled suspiciously similar questions to the extent that the Speaker complained he wasn’t going to be swayed by ‘mass lobbying’.
Jeremy Quin, the Cabinet Office Minister, answered the question for the government with a cold satisfaction, telling the Commons that this was an ‘exceptional situation’ and ‘unprecedented for a serving permanent secretary to resign to seek to take up a senior position working for the Leader of the Opposition’.
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