Ministers question if Sue Gray followed rules – as messages reveal Tory divides on Labour appointment
Tory MPs are fighting between themselves over Sue Gray’s decision to leave the civil service to work for Labour, leaked WhatsApp messages reveal – as questions continue to swirl over the controversial job move.
In a series of exchanges seen by Sky’s deputy political editor Sam Coates, allies of Boris Johnson clashed with their colleagues who warned against criticising the decision by Sir Keir Starmer to hire the author of the partygate report.
Sky News revealed on Friday that the Labour leader appointed the top official as his chief of staff after she left the civil service.
Politics live: Tory MPs row over WhatsApp about how to respond to Sue Gray taking job with Starmer
The news has prompted outrage from some Tory MPs, especially those loyal to Mr Johnson, who said the findings of her investigation into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street are now invalid and it was a “Labour stitch-up”.
However, the messages leaked to Sky News show not all Conservatives are happy with this attack line, with former minister Jackie Doyle-Price warning it is “ill judged” and “burning our constitution”.
Ms Doyle-Price said in a group chat on Monday morning: “A reminder folks – Boris Johnson appointed Sue Gray to investigate partygate. No one else. So much for a stitch up . He wasn’t brought down by partygate. Or by Whitehall.
“He lost the confidence of the Parliamentary party over the appointment of the previous deputy chief whip (Chris Pincher).”
The former minister warned “this anti-Whitehall pile on is simply burning our constitution”.
Allies of Boris Johnson clashed with Conservative colleagues over Sue Gray’s move to Labour
“Starmer has shown poor judgment here but a lot of what is being said by Colleagues is also I’ll [sic] judged,” she said.
However, the Conservative MP for Workington, Mark Jenkinson, disagreed, saying the former senior civil servant was making “a mockery of the system she purported to be protecting”.
Tim Loughton, the backbench MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, came partially to Ms Doyle-Price’s defence, arguing that criticism should be focused on Sir Keir rather than Sue Gray to avoid “refocussing public attention on partygate”.
But it was former culture secretary Nadine Dorries who most aggressively rejected the appeal to step back from attacks, starting her message: “Are you serious, Jackie?”.
Tory MPs fight between themselves over Sue Gray in leaked WhatsApp chat
The scale of the rancour and emotion over Boris Johnson and the decision by top official Sue Gray to work for Labour was on display today in a WhatsApp exchange obtained by Sky News.
In a series of messages on a group chat this morning, allies of Johnson clashed with other Tories who warned against criticising the decision by Sir Keir Starmer to hire the author of the party gate report.
The leaked WhatsApps show the depth of decision between allies of Johnson and the rest.
A message by former minister Jackie Doyle-Price said attacks on Sue Gray and the civil service were “ill judged” and were “burning our constitution”.
The Conservative MP for Workington, Mark Jenkinson, who has made his criticised Ms Gray and Sir Keir loudly and repeatedly, was having none of it – saying the former senior civil servant was making “a mockery of the system she purported to be protecting”.
Tim Loughton, the backbench MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, came partially to Jackie Doyle-Price’s defence, arguing that criticism should be focused on Starmer rather than Sue Gray to avoid “refocussing public attention on partygate”.
But it was former culture secretary Nadine Dorries who most aggressively rejected the appeal to step back from attacks, starting her message: “Are you serious, Jackie?”.
In the midst of all the arguments, one MP made the point that such disagreements should probably be kept off WhatsApp – “It will leak”, observed Paul Bristow.
Tory MPs row over Sue Gray: Read the full exchange
The messages lay bare the scale of the rancour and emotion over Mr Johnson’s departure and Ms Gray’s perceived role in it, after her partygate report found there was a “failure of leadership and judgment” in Number 10 during his premiership.
Mr Johnson, who ordered the civil servant’s investigation, went on to receive one of the 126 fines issued by the Metropolitan Police during its own probe.
The former prime minister narrowly survived a no-confidence vote over the scandal, but was forced to resign a month later after support in his cabinet collapsed over his handling of the Chris Pincher affair.
He remains under investigation by the cross-party Privileges Committee over whether he lied to parliament with his denials of lockdown-flouting parties.
Sue Gray ‘may have breached rules’
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Sue Gray job sparks fiery debate
The leaked messages emerged amid a heated debate on Ms Gray’s hiring in the Commons – with Labour dismissing the furore as a “conspiracy theory” spread by Mr Johnson and his allies.
Several Conservative MPs raised concerns about her planned move to the Opposition and pressed it to release the full details of their exchanges with the former civil servant.
Jeremy Quinn, a government minister, cast doubt on whether the partygate investigator followed the proper process of notifying officials about her planned job move – and suggested her new appointment could be blocked.
The paymaster general said there are four rules or guidance for civil servants that are “pertinent”, including informing the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) of new roles they wish to take up.
“The rules state that approval must be obtained prior to a job offer being announced. The Cabinet Office has not as yet been informed that the relevant notification to ACOBA has been made,” he said.
Mr Quinn said ACOBA could recommend that the appointment would not be appropriate and confirmed there’s a standard three month waiting period for its decision – but said it could take as long as two years.
Read More:
Sue Gray: ‘No reason to believe’ partygate investigator not impartial, minister says
He confirmed the Cabinet Office is “looking into the circumstances leading up to Gray’s resignation” and urged Labour to publish its communications with Ms Gray ahead of her appointment.
‘Conspiracy theory from sleaze-obsessed Tories’
Speaking in the Commons, deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the “sleaze-addicted” Tories of being “so self-obsessed that they are using parliamentary time to indulge in the conspiracy theories of the former prime minister and his gang”.
“What will they ask for next, a Westminster hall debate on the moon landings, the bill of dredging the Loch Ness, or a public inquiry into whether the earth is flat?” she asked.
“This debate says more about the delusions of the modern Conservative Party than it does anything else.”
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Earlier, Sir Keir declined to say when he first contacted her about joining his team when pressed repeatedly, saying only that “it was recent” and after his former chief of staff left in October last year.
But he insisted he had “absolutely no contact” with Ms Gray while she was investigating rule breaches across Downing Street and Whitehall.
Russia has launched a “massive” drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital overnight, after Moscow itself was targeted.
Amid flailing peace talks, the Kremlin’s nightly attacks on Ukraine continued.
Ukraine war – follow the latest updates
A large-scale Russian attack through the night into Sunday injured at least 11 in Kyiv and killed three people in towns surrounding the capital.
There were attacks elsewhere as well, including drone strikes in Mykolaiv, where a residential building was hit.
An apartment building destroyed after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
‘Massive’ attack
In Kyiv, the city’s administration warned “the night will be difficult”, as people were urged to remain in shelters.
The city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko described it as a “massive” attack.
He said: “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working. The capital is under attack by enemy UAVs. Do not neglect your safety! Stay in shelters!”
It came after at least 15 people were injured in attacks the night prior.
Russia claimed it also faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday, and that it intercepted and destroyed around 100 of them near Moscow and across Russia’s central and southern regions.
A municipality worker cleans up after a Russian drone strike on Kyiv. Pic: Reuters
Russia ‘dragging out the war’
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continued a prisoner exchange, marking a rare moment of cooperation in the war.
Amid the most recent attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his calls for sanctions on Russia.
Russia “fills each day with horror and murder” and is “simply dragging out the war”, he said.
A resident looks at an apartment building that was damaged in a Russian drone strike. Pic: Reuters
“All of this demands a response – a strong response from the United States, from Europe, and from everyone in the world who wants this war to end,” Mr Zelenskyy added.
Every day “gives new grounds for sanctions against Russia”, he said, and each day without pressure proves the “war will continue”.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is ready for “any form of diplomacy that delivers real results”.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
World
UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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