Is Keir trolling Boris with his next hire?

Wanted: a chief of staff for Sir Keir. Steerpike was first to break the news last year that the Labour leader was on the hunt for a top civil servant to become his head honcho. And today Sky has a delicious report that suggests he has found his man – or woman in this case. For it seems that the person best suited to pursuing Labour’s electoral success is none other than, er, Sue Gray, of Cabinet Office fame.

She of course was the fearsome sleaze-buster who investigated Boris Johnson’s lockdown parties, playing her role in events that brought down the man who achieved the best Tory result for 30 years. While Gray declined to comment on the story, Sky notes that her son Liam Conlon is the chair of Labour’s Irish Society – formerly led by the party’s director of communications Matthew Doyle.

Such a hire would have an added twist too, for Doyle’s opposite number is Amber de Botton, who runs comms in No.