What the Sue Gray row is really about

Another day, another story about Sue Gray. Today the BBC reports the details of Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff’s salary. Gray is paid the handsome sum of £170,000 a year – £3,000 more than her boss, the prime minister. She therefore earns more than any cabinet minister or Tory predecessor in the role. In a sign of how some in Whitehall feel about her pay, a source tells the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason:

It was suggested that she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this very story. She declined.

A Cabinet Office spokesman responds:

It is false to suggest that political appointees have made any decisions on their own pay bands or determining their own pay. Any decision on special adviser pay is made by officials, not political appointees.

Now one could say this is a ‘Westminster bubble’ story – certainly the type that Keir Starmer takes issue with.