Lord Mandelson slaps down Sue Gray

Turns out politics is harder than it looks. Having quit the civil service at the end of the last year, Sue Gray has received some glowing write-ups in her new capacity as chief of staff to Keir Starmer. But that appears to have been brought to a halt by her interview in yesterday’s Times in which she suggested that Labour could introduce citizens’ assemblies.

Already the party has had to brief to newspapers that ‘the creation of citizens’ assemblies is not an official party policy and there are currently no plans related to their potential use’. And now Lord Mandelson – the master of the dark arts – has gone public with some of the criticism that some in private are voicing. Speaking on the Times Radio election podcast, he asked ‘I’m sure there’s a lot to be said for citizens’ assemblies, but is that really the voters’ priority in this election year?’

Host Matt Chorley then replied ‘Well, according to Sue Gray it is’ to which Mandelson retorted:

Or the Labour announcement that we’re suddenly going to reopen the issue of foxhunting, not to scrap the ban, but to tighten it up and to relitigate the whole issue? I mean, these are third or fourth order issues for the public.