STARMER HIT BY NEW LEAK ROW OVER SUE GRAY’S £170,000 SALARY
Sir Keir Starmer’s government has been hit by another leak row after revelations Sue Gray is earning more than the Prime Minister emerged in what appeared to be the latest attempt to attack the chief of staff.
Gray – a former senior civil servant who quit to become a Labour advisor – was appointed on a salary of £170,000, putting her on a slightly higher wage than Starmer who earns around £167,000.
The BBC reported that insiders had claimed Gray herself had asked for the salary after the election when she took on her new Government role and declined to cut it by a few thousand pounds so she would earn less than the PM.
This has been strenuously denied by sources close to Gray, however, who told i it was not the case that she had requested her salary – insisting that pay decisions were made by civil servants not political appointees.
“This allegation is categorically untrue. Sue Gray had no involvement in any decision on her pay. She was informed of her salary after this had been set,” a government source said.
Jumping to Gray’s defence, a cabinet minister told i: “Sue has done an enormous job preparing Labour for government, and is now showing her customary drive to get Whitehall to deliver on Labour’s priorities. She won’t be distracted, she will carry on doing what she always does, focus on delivering the change that the British people voted for.”
It is the latest in a long line of negative briefings against the chief of staff, who is said to have clashed with other senior figures in Starmer’s No10. The PM himself was forced to address the leaks against Gray earlier this week amid concerns they are becoming a distraction.
One former No10 adviser under the Conservatives, who worked alongside Gray in her previous role, said the briefings against Gray could leave her position untenable.
They said similar fates had been faced by other advisors who generated negative stories: Alistair Campbell under Tony Blair, Steve Hilton under David Cameron, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill who worked with Theresa May and Dominic Cummings who served under Boris Johnson.
“Sue won’t last. It might not be her fault, but it’s never a good thing when you end up becoming the story. Like Campbell, or Steve Hilton, or Nick and Fi, or Dom,” they said.
Another Tory adviser added: “Sue Gray is a fundamentally non-political person who has been put in to the most political job imaginable. It makes MPs unhappy.”
The former Whitehall ethics chief conducted the partygate investigation into Boris Johnson’s No10 before being hired by Starmer before the election. Before and after the general election, Gray has been the subject of a stream of stories citing sources criticising her management.
In the early days of the new administration, there were reports of a rift between Gray and Starmer’s head of political strategy Morgan McSweeney. Gray was also accused of keeping a tight grip over newly-appointed ministers’ political staff, known as special advisors – forcing Cabinet sources to rush to her defence.
On Monday, the Guardian reported internal frustration at the failure of Simon Case, the head of the civil service and Gray’s former boss, to get a grip on the damaging leaks.
Case is due to leave the position in the new year but ministers and No10 are reportedly pushing for a date for his departure to be confirmed amid the ongoing leaks.
Downing Street was this week forced to deny suggestions there was a “nest of vipers” in Starmer’s senior team.
The briefing has escalated to the point that Starmer himself sought to quell rumours of tensions over the weekend when he told reporters many claims were “wildly wrong”.
“I’m not going to talk behind her back and I’m not going to talk about individual members of staff, whether it’s Sue Gray or any other member of staff,” he said. “All I can say about the stories is most of them are wildly wrong.”
It is not unusual for advisors to earn more than the ministerial position they work alongside and all Special adviser salaries and pay bands are outlined in an annual report. Starmer himself signed off a rebanding of the salaries for special advisers shortly after taking office in July.
But news of Gray’s pay rise comes after The Times revealed advisers in Downing Street and working for cabinet ministers are set to unionise after several claimed they had taken a pay cut for taking jobs in government.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “These allegations are completely untrue. It is false to suggest that political appointees have made any decisions on their own pay bands or determining their own pay.
“Any decision on special adviser pay, are made by officials not political appointees. As set out publicly, special advisers cannot authorise expenditure of public funds or have responsibility for budgets.”
Gray’s salary is not reflected in the most recent publicly available report, which is from July 2023.
That report puts the top salary for the top band at £145,000. Gray’s predecessor in Rishi Sunak’s government, Liam Booth Smith, was paid between £140,000 and £144,999.
But the ceiling for special adviser pay has not been increased since 2019.
The Conservative Party responded with a series of questions for Labour, including whether the Prime Minister personally signed off Gray’s new salary and the increase to the cap on the highest pay band.
2024-09-18T16:52:47Z dg43tfdfdgfd