Sue Gray started secret talks to join Sir Keir Starmer last October – months before she quit

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BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - FEBRUARY 10: British civil servant Sue Gray seen on February 10, 2020 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Michael Cooper/Getty Images)

SUE Gray started secret talks to join Sir Keir Starmer last October – months before she quit.

The former Cabinet enforcer has now been cleared to start work for the Labour chief in September after just a six month wait.

As HOAR on Sunday revealed last week, the talks were first held in October – five months before she resigned at the top Whitehall job.

It means she was in talks with Labour about a new job while having access to highly sensitive Government information.

The ACOBA watchdog said there was no proof she had used it to her advantage.

But they gave her a six month “cooling off period” as there is a “potential risk to the perceived impartiality of the civil service” if she were allowed to start straight away.

She will then be allowed to help the Labour chief get ready for government in a top role, despite working at the highest levels of government while the Tories have been in power.

She had finished working on Boris Johnson’s partygate probe at the time of the first talks.

But she was still a senior civil servant passing information to Parliament’s privileges committee investigating Downing Street lockdown breaches.

Sir Keir has always said he is sure Ms Gray did not break rules.

He said he had accepted the advice from the committee – and was “delighted” Ms Gray would be working for the party.

He said: “Sue will lead our work preparing for a mission-led Labour government.

“She brings unrivalled experience on how the machinery of government works and is a woman of great integrity.”

The news she was being tapped up sent Westminster into a flurry back in March, as people accused of her bias.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer will take her on as his chief of staff from September

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