The mystery of the missing Sue Gray 

What has become of Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s former Downing Street chief of staff, who was rather unceremoniously removed from her official duties earlier this month? At the time of her defenestration, there was much soothing talk about how she was moving to an important new role as Keir Starmer’s envoy on a new council of nations and regions. This body, according to official briefings, is intended to reset relationships and boost growth in every part of the UK. The new job was supposed to start immediately as part of a seamless transition that saw her replaced as chief of staff by Morgan McSweeney, who oversaw Labour’s victorious election campaign. At the time of her exit, Gray herself said she was leaving the role because it was ‘clear to me that intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction’. That was one way of putting it. Another less diplomatic summary of events would be to say that she had become the story after weeks of leaks and briefings against her, and had been sidelined after losing a bitter internal power struggle inside No.