Sue Gray’s top five lowlights

Change is the flavour of the month and nobody knows that better than Sir Keir Starmer’s top team, which on Sunday saw the PM’s chief of staff Sue Gray swap out for Labour campaign guru Morgan McSweeney after weeks of negative briefings about the former civil servant. Gray is down but not quite out – taking on an ‘advisory’ position as ‘envoy for the regions and nations’ – and as she moves into her next role, Mr S thought it would be worth reflecting on the ex-Starmer staffer’s biggest lowlights in the top job…

Previous professional controversies

If readers cast their minds back to March 2023, they will remember Sue Gray’s last episode of explosive job news. Early last year, the Partygate investigator had jaws dropping across the country after she made the decision to jump ship from the civil service to Sir Keir Starmer. The extraordinary step ruffled feathers across Whitehall – not least as Gray was responsible for looking into the Downing Street lockdown gatherings attended by Tory politicians and staff, but also because it threw the impartiality of the civil service into doubt.