Another one bites the dust. Now Sue Gray has resigned from her top job as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, taking on an ‘advisory’ position while Labour campaign guru Morgan McSweeney moves into her role. The move follows weeks of bad briefings about Gray – from claims the Starmer staffer had ‘subverted’ Cabinet over Casement Park, refused to get paid less than the PM and was not seeing eye to eye with McSweeney himself. The drama never quite seemed to end. So much for serious government, eh? Certainly those commentators who gloated about Sir Keir’s Labour welcoming in a new age of mature politics must be feeling red-faced now. Mr S thought it would be useful to take a look at who exactly might want to swallow their words…
Take former politician Anna Soubry, for example, who was quick to take to Twitter post-election to write:
Is it just me but suddenly everything feels… normal? No more psychodramas and scandals. Like the grown-ups are back in government and people can get on with their lives watching politics out the corner of their eyes. Safe.
Er, right. That aged well…
Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy wrote after Starmer’s win in the July poll that:
After years of personality-driven and chaotic, shallow politics coverage across much of the media, which was largely about instability, gossip and leadership crises, we now have a government with massive majority, widespread internal agreement and no likelihood of massive instability anytime soon.
It’s not like Sue’s salary, the frockgate saga and briefings about disorganisation and feuding behind the scenes have distracted from Labour’s policy announcements lately, eh? Don’t count your chickens, Krishnan!
Meanwhile former Labour adviser-turned-Times Radio presenter Ayesha Hazarika was quick to gush over Starmer’s post-election speech, tweeting:
This is really strong from Starmer… Calm. Optimistic but realistic. Serious big issues. No mad random tribe attacks about bins, meat tax etc… Refreshing.
If only his party had been the same behind the scenes…
In more regrettable predictions, Guardian man John Crace was insistent post-poll that: ‘The grown-ups are back in Westminster. The Tory psychodramas inside No. 10 have been replaced by a serious Labour government focused on delivery.’ New Statesman pol ed Andrew Marr even wrote that: ‘For the first time in many of our lives, actually Britain looks like a little haven of peace and stability.’ That didn’t quite pan out, did it?
The Labour love-in extends much further back than the election result, of course. Back in March 2023, when it was announced that Gray would become Sir Keir’s chief of staff, lefty writer Ian Dunt took to social media to post: ‘That Sue Gray appointment is very encouraging… It’s the clearest sign yet of how Starmer wants to govern.’ Um, dramatically?
Likewise, in his characteristically bullish fashion, LBC presenter James O’Brien wrote on the news of Gray’s new role: ‘Appointing Sue Gray is, off the top of my head, the first thing Starmer has very deliberately done which was absolutely guaranteed to provoke an avalanche of Daily Mail-infuse bullshit. And that is both significant and highly encouraging. No wonder all their p*** is boiling!’ Who’s laughing now, eh?
And while Countdown star-turned-political commentator Carol Vorderman has recently turned her Twitter account to private, Mr S can imagine she might be feeling rather sour about it all too – not least after calling on all her followers to help Starmer’s lefty lot win in an attack on Tory sleaze. How the tables turn…
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