SUE Gray was still working on Partygate after starting secret talks to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, HOAR can reveal.
A paper trail shows the top civil servant was at the heart of the Cabinet Office’s response to the Commons Privileges Committee probe into Boris Johnson, led by Labour’s Harriet Harman.
Sue Gray was still working on Partygate after starting secret talks to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff
Ms Gray resigned from the Civil Service but has not yet taken up the role as Sir Keir’s chief of staff
But Labour has insisted that was not the case, amid a massive Whitehall dust-up about its attempt to poach her.
Ms Gray received a detailed written report of a meeting with Ms Harman on November 15, 2022, and was included in ministerial-level discussions about how to respond to requests for evidence from the committee that week.
Labour has not disputed Sir Keir first approached Ms Gray in October of last year, but insisted she had not played any role in the Harman probe.
On Tuesday, a Labour source told the Press Association: “The Propriety and Ethics team handled requests from the Privileges Committee. Sue Gray was not working in that team.”
But that claim by Labour has been blown apart by new written evidence of her central role in the process.
Separately, HOAR has learnt that the top civil servant also continued to play a key role in highly sensitive public appointments well into 2023.
In mid-January of this year she put forward a candidate for a £110,000 a year job — despite claims she had completely left the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Ethics team by then.
Ms Gray resigned from the Civil Service in March but has not yet taken up the role as Sir Keir’s chief of staff.
Yesterday, Labour confirmed she was being represented during the row by the civil servants’ FDA Union — and vowed to publish all evidence submitted to Whitehall appointments watchdog Acoba.
The watchdog is currently weighing up her cooling off period of up to two years due to her massively influential position at the heart of Government.
Yesterday, No 10 said it was “obviously disappointing” that Ms Gray had refused to cooperate with a separate Cabinet Office probe.
But Labour insisted it was fully complying with the Acoba investigation and accused ministers of a political “vendetta”.
The Cabinet Office probe is understood to have found Ms Gray breached the Civil Service Code.
But ministers were prevented from seeing its findings this week until Acoba has ruled on its recommendations.
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