Sir Keir Starmer’s former Chief of Staff Sue Gray “overreached herself” by blocking a request from a Cabinet minister only for the PM to learn of her decision later and overrule it, i can reveal.
Five days after Gray left Downing Street to be replaced by election strategist Morgan McSweeney, new details have emerged that explain the Prime Minister’s decision to demote her to the role of Envoy for Nations and Regions.
One Cabinet minister requested a particular appointment to their team, only to find the move blocked by Gray who said the Prime Minister wasn’t in favour.
In a later meeting between Starmer and the Cabinet minister but without her attending, the PM revealed he had never even discussed the matter with Gray and backed the choice of staff.
A source said the most charitable interpretation was that Gray had not thought it worth bothering Starmer over a personnel matter, but they also offered an alternative interpretation: she had “overreached her authority” and made an executive decision on his behalf.
The revelation came as Gray skipped a meeting Starmer hosted in Edinburgh today at the first summit between the Government and leaders from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the English regions.
In her new position it had been anticipated she would be attending. Downing Street said she was taking a short break before taking up her new post and that there would be another forum in the spring.
“I know that she has not enjoyed being a figure in the public eye unlike me, who can come on your programme and speak for myself and answer any of your questions,” Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden told LBC on Friday.
“As an official, she can’t do that. Given what she has been through in the last few weeks, she has decided to take a bit of downtime, take a bit of a break, and I quite understand why.”
Publicly, the Cabinet had been full of praise for Gray and how she was unlocking the Whitehall machine. Behind the scenes it was a different story, i can reveal.
Gray’s insistence that she oversaw even minor policy areas also exasperated those who saw how slow decision-making was becoming. Junior ministers said Gray wanted to sit in on their cross-departmental meetings, prompting bafflement that she should have the time or the inclination to micro-manage to such a degree.
“Sue made people think that they didn’t have the information to do their jobs, and she did other people’s jobs for them,” an insider said. “She was also nominally in charge of comms but that didn’t work either.”
Gray was supposed to oversee the so-called grid of announcements. The party’s conference in Liverpool so soon after a landslide was meant to be a victory lap. Instead it was overshadowed by the ongoing row over freebies; there were no policy offerings to divert attention.
“In the end it was Sue versus everyone else,” another Labour source said. “It was becoming unsustainable.”
Downing Street declined to comment.
*Read i’s full investigation into Labour’s first 100 days in power in Saturday’s iweekend.
