So, Cluedo fans, who finished off Sue Gray? Was it Chris Mason in the BBC newsroom with the revelation her £170,000 salary topped that of the PM? Was it Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire in the Sunday Times with the exclusive that Gray’s close friend Waheed Alli had been given a No 10 pass after his work leading the election fundraising campaign? Or maybe it was Pogrund again, a short while later, when he exposed the PM had breached parliamentary rules by failing to declare Lord Alli’s frocks for Victoria Starmer.
Maybe it was Sky News in their Westminster Accounts project, which showed Starmer had pocketed the largest number of freebies and hospitality recorded of any MP since 2019 (a political disaster Gray should have seen coming). Or perhaps the Sun’s reporting that Gray had moved campaign strategist Morgan McSweeney’s desk further from the PM’s office. Or was it Westminster snapper Steve Back in a front-page image for the Daily Mail which showed Gray in a tense meeting with Michael Bourke, a member of the Cabinet Secretary’s team, and thereby revealed the dysfunction at the heart of Downing Street?
In the end it was none of them – and all of them. It was the sheer volume of stories which painted Gray as a power-crazed dictator causing havoc in government: of her antagonising and freezing out colleagues; of her failure at managing the transition to government; of lacking the nous to keep her boss out of a sleaze storm; and for operating a flimsy policy plan insufficient to keep the lobby occupied. Think of a potential failing in a Chief of Staff and there was a story to fit the failing. The journalists are, of course, just doing their jobs.
So, a victory for the leakers then? Undoubtedly. Sue Gray may have been content to label reporters “scumbag journalists” (another leak unlikely to endear her to the media) but her problem was far closer to home. She’d made too many enemies among the advisers she thought overpaid and underqualified for government. And among those who wanted easier access to the PM. The leaks went from a trickle to a torrent.
Those responsible may be celebrating. But they should be mindful of the appalling long-term damage the past three months have done, giving right-wing news outlets material they could only have dreamed of before the election. The battle to regain any credibility in those titles, which influence so much of the broadcast agenda and national conversation, will take years. Gray may have gone, but the perception of chaos will take years to overcome – if they’re lucky.
Sue Gray was already “the story” before she got the job. I thought it a mistake when Starmer first chose her – why give the Tories ammunition for the claim that her Partygate inquiry was a Labour-inspired hit job on Johnson? It was downhill from then on and, as I wrote at the close of Labour’s conference, Starmer had to either back her or sack her. He chose the latter. Possibly because he didn’t have the balls to stand up to her detractors. More likely he just wanted the noise to stop.
Dumping Gray may not be fair. It may not even be the best thing for the running of his office. But at least it’s a decision which might draw a line under three months of mess. Although, remember much of that mess was not of her doing. It wasn’t Sue Gray accepting Arsenal tickets or ending winter fuel allowance or making business hang on interminably for the budget. There are plenty of people contributing to the mis-steps of recent weeks and likely to make more. But someone has to take responsibility. Otherwise, who will be the next No 10 Cluedo casualty?
