Katy Balls Katy Balls

Sue Gray, Simon Case and a tale of two appointments

[Getty Images] 
issue 06 May 2023

When Boris Johnson appointed Simon Case to the Cabinet Office, he believed that the youngest cabinet secretary in a century (just 41 when he accepted the role) would be more malleable than his more experienced rivals. Case was appointed in September 2020, when Dominic Cummings was, in effect, running No. 10 and had big ideas about rewiring Whitehall. ‘Simon was picked to be Dom’s stooge,’ says one former Johnson aide. ‘His role was to let Dom be Dom.’

One person who appears to be finding an upside to Sue Gray’s woes is Simon Case

Conversely, when Keir Starmer asked Sue Gray to be his chief of staff, the idea was that a civil servant with her seniority would be able to bring to Labour, a party that has been out of power for more than a decade, the planning and expertise needed to prepare for government. There was also the bonus that her new position could be read as a damning verdict on the Tories’ behaviour in government, since she was the one to have investigated Johnson’s parties in No.

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