In a radical Downing Street reshuffle, Sue Gray has quit her role as Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff to become the PM’s ”envoy for regions and nations”. Sky News has the latest.
Morgan McSweeney, the party’s former Campaign Director who masterminded July’s election landslide, will replace her as the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff.
Ms. Gray said that while it had been “an honour to take on the role of Chief of Staff”, it had become clear that “intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the Government’s vital work of change”.
“It is for that reason I have chosen to stand aside, and I look forward to continuing to support the Prime Minister in my new role.”
The Prime Minister thanked Ms. Gray –- who famously authored the report into parties in Downing Street during the pandemic – for “all the support she has given me, both in opposition and government and her work to prepare us for government and get us started on our programme of change”.
“Sue has played a vital role in strengthening our relations with the regions and nations. I am delighted that she will continue to support that work,” he added.
Ms. Gray’s resignation follows weeks of speculation about her role and reports of a power struggle at the heart of government.
Tensions over Ms. Gray’s role reached a crescendo when her salary of £170,000 – £3,000 more than the Prime Minister – was leaked to the BBC in an apparent attempt to damage her politically. …
A Conservative Party spokesperson described the latest moves in Downing Street as “chaos” and questioned who was running the country.
“In fewer than 100 days Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has been thrown into chaos – he has lost his Chief of Staff who has been at the centre of the scandal the Labour Party has been engulfed by,” they said. …
One Labour insider told Sky News that the current leadership “spent years saying how it was time to professionalise the party – but this chaos with Keir Starmer seems remarkably similar to the chaos with Jeremy Corbyn”.
They pointed out that Mr. McSweeney previously served as Sir Keir’s Chief of Staff between 2020 and 2021 before being moved on to his campaign role.
In a major announcement on Sunday, Sir Keir also announced a shake-up of his entire Downing Street operation following disquiet at how the party handled rows over freebies and donations, as well as its decision to axe winter fuel payments for most pensioners.
Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson have been promoted to Deputy Chiefs of Staff, while Nin Pandit has been appointed as Sir Keir’s Parliamentary Private Secretary.
Meanwhile, former journalist James Lyons will join from TikTok to lead a new strategic communications team.
Worth reading in full.
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Couple of questions have any of these people in the reshuffle actually been elected..
Have any of them worked in anything or anywhere else not involved with government, pr,politics or lobbying?
Or are they just another bunch of club parasites
In much the same vein, is Ms Gray’s new job something that was already covered by existing staff or have they just created a new non-job to prevent the indignity of a constructive dismissal claim? (Spoiler alert I think we know the answer. The answer to most hurty-feelings in the public sector always seems to be an additional dollop of taxpayers’ money.)
Our elected Members of Parliament have their paymasters..
There is no Democracy…
Notice who’s received the most…. The Education Secretary….
Option C I think.
Sounds like a non-job to keep her in the tent.
A word salad. Which regions and what nations?
Was there a recruitment process?
Did she pass EDI specifications?
I assume a peerage will also be involved.
I suspect no party wants to read her memoirs.
She looks ” white ” to me…oh; dear.
A chair shuffling exercise at great cost to the taxpayers. What a surprise.
“envoy for regions and nations?”
WTF are they on about? This is not the United States of America this is little old Blighty. More “devolution” on the way. More devolved “assemblies” comprising carefully chosen pigs more equal than the rest of us but at yet more cost to taxpayers. In other words more controls and greater impoverishment.
Off-T
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2024/03/majestic-wine-brexit/#:~:text=The%20overhaul%20means%20the%20amount,the%2012.5%25%20ABV%20duty%20rate.
More bloody interference intended to screw taxpayers.
Kneel and his bunch of thieving, treasonous parasites are determined to kill the hospitality sector.
Rats getting off Shagger Starmer’s sinking ship.
And what will the “regions and nations” think of it?
My bet is, is that she hasn’t been signed by L’Oréal
They say your inner self becomes etched on your face as you get older…
A nice lesson for Ms Gray that “what goes around, comes around.”
Keir-Ching! will get the same lesson in due course.