Sue Gray: ‘No reason to believe’ partygate investigator not impartial, minister says
A cabinet minister said she has “no reason to believe” Sue Gray was not impartial when she investigated partygate ahead of the ex-civil servant becoming Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
Sky News revealed on Friday the Labour leader has appointed Ms Gray and she has left her role in the civil service.
The news has prompted outrage from some Tory MPs, especially those loyal to Boris 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”.
They fear she could use “privileged information”, such as that on ministers’ private lives, to benefit Labour.
Some blame Ms Gray for Mr Johnson’s eventual downfall after she found there was a “failure of leadership and judgment” in Number 10 during his premiership.
But Michelle Donelan, the science, innovation and technology secretary, told Sky News’ Kay Burley this morning: “She was a leading civil servant who obviously swore and accepted the civil service code in which one of those key requirements is impartiality.
“I think she was impartial, I have no reason to believe she wasn’t.”
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Ms Donalan said the circumstances under which Ms Gray has taken on her new job should be examined.
“I think what people are mainly concerned about here is what process has taken place for her to acquire this new job,” she added.
“Have talks taken place when potentially they shouldn’t have, etc. These are the questions that need to be looked at and answered and ACOBA need to be allowed to do that job and review this.”
Read more: Who is Sue Gray?
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Ministers trying to ‘trash’ Sue Gray integrity
Sir Keir has defended his decision to appoint Ms Gray, saying if his party wins the next election they “won’t be forgiven if we’re not prepared for government”.
Today, Ms Gray will formally request permission to become Sir Keir’s chief of staff from ACOBA, the body that provides advice on applications from senior civil servants taking up other appointments after leaving.
She will have to set out the timeline of her discussions with Labour, including when she first began talking to the Labour leader about the role.
Labour frontbencher Wes Streeting said he understands “there’s some sour grapes” over Ms Gray’s appointment but urged Tory critics to “calm down”.
The shadow health secretary told Sky News: “She was asked by Boris Johnson to do an inquiry. He lauded her integrity when he asked her to do it, as have, by the way, many decent Conservatives in recent days, who’ve said ‘Hang on a minute, Conservative colleagues, calm down. This is not unusual’.
“And she is a professional civil servant who’s worked well with Labour and Conservative ministers. She has not breached confidences, there’s no reason to expect she will do so now.
“I can understand why there’s some sour grapes that good people are now wanting to work with Labour because they are hoping and thinking we might be the next government.”
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Starmer defends Sue Gray appointment
Sky News understands Ms Gray is already facing an informal probe by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, a unit she oversaw when she was director-general between 2012 and 2018.
They are looking into whether she breached the civil service code by failing to disclose details of discussions with Labour at the earliest opportunity.
Officials have said Ms Gray should have notified ACOBA about taking up the role before she resigned, rather than afterwards.
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
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Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
Read more:
Trump’s 28-point Ukraine peace plan in full
Analysis: We could all pay if Europe doesn’t guarantee Ukraine’s security
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.
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