Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

Starmer and his front bench are completely hopeless

I hope to god they have enough in the tank to get over the line and beat the tory gits

If labour can't win this they may as well retire , the lot of them

[life on mars]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

Dreadful decision, giving the Tories lots to chomp on .

How this sit with impartiality is a mystery ??

Isn't there supposed to be a year or so grace period before top civil servicants are allowed to take on external politic / media roles , she must know that ?? .

I'm sure Sue Gray applied that actual rule to someone else recently.

She must be okay though as she once thought Alistair Campbell should stand as an MP , as Labour needed something fresh and her son is a big Labour man .

[life on mars]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

From Spectator today :
Did Sue Gray break the rules?
By James Heale

Lawyers know which questions to duck – as Keir Starmer demonstrated on LBC today. Appearing on his weekly phone-in, the Labour leader refused ten times to answer questions over when he first made an approach to Sue Gray about appointing her as his chief of staff. The Spectator was the first to report – in November – that Starmer was seeking to hire a senior civil servant for the role. So was an approach made to Gray five weeks ago – or five months ago? Starmer refused to say. When news first broke that Gray was being considered for the role, party sources suggested that Starmer personally initiated contact ‘several months ago’. Now, Starmer will only say that he has been in discussions with her for ‘a little while now.’

This matters because there are strict government guidelines around civil service impartiality and accepting party political roles. Gray is expected to tell Acoba today when exactly an approach was made. But Conservative MPs are not content to wait for the watchdog’s recommendations to be made public. Sir Robert Buckland has secured an Urgent Question on the appointment, which will be debated in the House at 3.30 p.m. Some are furious about Gray’s role in the partygate probe and have publicly suggested that she was biased in her investigation. Others want to know why she did not inform ministers of any contact with Labour figures to discuss her new job – even though it is a requirement under civil service rules.

Gray’s proposed appointment doesn’t invalidate the work she carried out during partygate. However, the timing and manner of the approach are the things that concern many in Whitehall. Susan Acland-Hood, the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, reportedly reminded her colleagues last week of the importance of flagging any contact with Opposition figures. The irony is not lost on many in SW1 about a former head of the Cabinet Office’s Proprietary and Ethics team being under suspicion of breaking the civil service code she was meant to uphold.

[Tito Fuente]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

Hopefully everything will come out during the process. If there's any proof of wrongdoing then Starmer has shot himself in the foot.

No doubt that Life on Mars will support the due process that he expects other parties and their representatives to receive.

I just about managed to type that without laughing.

[JamesWales]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I sincerely doubt anything severely bad or immoral has been done, but the optics aren't great and Starmer struggled today to say when he first talked to her about the role etc.

Seems like it might have been wiser to leave more time between her report and appointment and/or looked for someone else.

Fundementally, her report led to Boris Johnsons resignation, so it just doesn't look that independent if she then gets a senior role in Labour.

Wouldn't be surprised if this job offer ends up being withdrawn tbh

[Tito Fuente]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I sincerely doubt anything severely bad or immoral has been done, but the optics aren't great and Starmer struggled today to say when he first talked to her about the role etc.

Seems like it might have been wiser to leave more time between her report and appointment and/or looked for someone else.

Fundementally, her report led to Boris Johnsons resignation, so it just doesn't look that independent if she then gets a senior role in Labour.

Wouldn't be surprised if this job offer ends up being withdrawn tbh

"Fundementally, her report led to Boris Johnsons resignation"

Pardon? I think that we are re-writing history here, no?

It was his backing of Chris Pincher which led to the Tory revolt - which then led to his resignation.

They were all standing by him throughout 'Partygate' and the aftermath.

He was going absolutely nowhere until it was found out that he was lying about being aware of Pincher's previous behaviour.

If you want to argue this fact, Boris Johnson even said that the Sue Gray report "vindicated" him.

[life on mars]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I sincerely doubt anything severely bad or immoral has been done, but the optics aren't great and Starmer struggled today to say when he first talked to her about the role etc.

Seems like it might have been wiser to leave more time between her report and appointment and/or looked for someone else.

Fundementally, her report led to Boris Johnsons resignation, so it just doesn't look that independent if she then gets a senior role in Labour.

Wouldn't be surprised if this job offer ends up being withdrawn tbh

I did listen , it was weird asked ten times about a simplistic question ,not saying anything is wrong just be honest . Something like yes to be fair we have been courting Sue's services for some time as we want to be ready for Government and she knows every nook and cranny ? whats to hide ?

[Tito Fuente]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I did listen , it was weird asked ten times about a simplistic question ,not saying anything is wrong just be honest . Something like yes to be fair we have been courting Sue's services for some time as we want to be ready for Government and she knows every nook and cranny ? whats to hide ?

:hehe:

[life on mars]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

:hehe:

I know its so silly I'd laugh as well ,glad your with me on this one ..

[Tito Fuente]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I know its so silly I'd laugh as well ,glad your with me on this one ..

I'm laughing *at* you. Not with you :hehe:

[JamesWales]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

"Fundementally, her report led to Boris Johnsons resignation"

Pardon? I think that we are re-writing history here, no?

It was his backing of Chris Pincher which led to the Tory revolt - which then led to his resignation.

They were all standing by him throughout 'Partygate' and the aftermath.

He was going absolutely nowhere until it was found out that he was lying about being aware of Pincher's previous behaviour.

If you want to argue this fact, Boris Johnson even said that the Sue Gray report "vindicated" him.

I think if you asked people the reasoning behind Johnson's resignation then party gate would be very high up that list and she did author the report.

I doubt anything is untoward, but it is bad optics as several have noted, and it is pretty bad that Starmer couldn't give a straight answer on when he approached her.

[Tito Fuente]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I think if you asked people the reasoning behind Johnson's resignation then party gate would be very high up that list and she did author the report.

I doubt anything is untoward, but it is bad optics as several have noted, and it is pretty bad that Starmer couldn't give a straight answer on when he approached her.

Instead of focusing on the facts of what caused Boris Johnson's resignation you'd rather hypothesise on what "people" thought the reasoning was.

I don't think that this would stand up to scrutiny from you if another poster tried this tactic with you, James.

Partygate and Sue Gray's report did not lead to Boris Johnson's resignation and, again, in his own words, the SG report actually "vindicated" him.

[jon1959]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

I think if you asked people the reasoning behind Johnson's resignation then party gate would be very high up that list and she did author the report.

I doubt anything is untoward, but it is bad optics as several have noted, and it is pretty bad that Starmer couldn't give a straight answer on when he approached her.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-07-06/timeline-of-how-each-crisis-unfolded-under-boris-johnson

Partygate was part of the Johnson omni-shambles, but not the trigger. There were plenty of straws on the camel's back but Pincher was the final one - and the one that finally tipped it for a large chunk of the Cabinet and the 'Men In Grey Suits'.

How the public remember the pathetic saga is anyone's guess - with short term attention spans and corruption/lies fatigue, I expect they have the latest story in their heads. That would have been Pincher at the time - but with the desperate attempts now underway to re-write history, I'm sure a good percentage will be suckered by the Dorries and Rees-Mogg propaganda.

If Sue Gray is anything but professional, competent and ethical I will be very surprised. But as Starmer is none of those things I stick by my view that this appointment has handed a PR gift to Johnson and (probably) to Sunak.

[JamesWales]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

Instead of focusing on the facts of what caused Boris Johnson's resignation you'd rather hypothesise on what "people" thought the reasoning was.

I don't think that this would stand up to scrutiny from you if another poster tried this tactic with you, James.

Partygate and Sue Gray's report did not lead to Boris Johnson's resignation and, again, in his own words, the SG report actually "vindicated" him.

You are missing my point. I'm not saying she or Keir have done anything wrong (although like I said, it's weird he can't give a straight answer) but I'm saying it looks bad, and if it looks bad it's about how it looks in people's minds.

[Tito Fuente]

Re: Sue Gray Has Been Offered The Labour Chief of Staff Job

You are missing my point. I'm not saying she or Keir have done anything wrong (although like I said, it's weird he can't give a straight answer) but I'm saying it looks bad, and if it looks bad it's about how it looks in people's minds.

How am I missing your point?

I created this thread and began it by saying how I thought that it was terrible optics for Labour (and mentioned it again a few more times during the course of the thread).

You've made a couple of points about this story as far as I can tell.

One of them was about optics (which we seem to fully agree on) and the other was that the Sue Gray report "fundamentally led to Boris Johnson's resignation" - which is pure fantasy.