As Keir Starmer marks two months in Downing Street, Max Stafford explores how Sue Gray has settled back into Whitehall as the Prime Minister's Chief-of-Staff, her 'fearsome reputation' and rumours of a major parting-of-the-ways in Starmer's inner team.
‘She’s both lovely and f***ing scary.’ That’s how a former special adviser described Sue Gray to me. They were speaking to me as part of my current research project into the Downing Street Chief-of-Staff, and I had just asked them what might make Gray effective in the role if Keir Starmer became PM (the interview was conducted in 2023). The former adviser went on to clarify – ‘Lovely, because she’s an easy person to talk to and raise and problems with. Scary, because I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone as knowledgeable about how government really works.’
Ask anyone who encountered Gray in her previous role as a civil servant and they’ll likely give you a similar description. Oliver Letwin went on the record, over a decade ago, to say, ‘Our great United Kingdom is actually entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray…. Unless she agrees, things just don’t happen.’ Likewise, when I interviewed a former Cabinet Secretary in July of this year, he told me that ‘Likeable but frighteningly-effective is what other people tell me about her.’ In her new role, she has even been described as ‘Britain’s most powerful woman’.
This likeable but scary figure now occupies one of the most powerful political positions in the centre of government – Downing Street Chief-of-Staff. I’ve previously written about how there are different views about what the Chief-of-Staff does. A big part of my research is caught up in trying to unravel and define that. However – whether it be me, the Institute for Government, interviewees, journalists, or anyone else with a perspective on the role – there is a consensus that this role matters and can wield real power at the heart of government. This is now being reflected in the significant growth in media stories about Gray and changes to Downing Street. She’s even been the inspiration behind a comedy show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe!
However, not all publicity is good publicity – especially when you’re a special adviser (spad). It is spad-lore that the adviser should never become the story. If they are, this usually reflects badly on both them and their minister. Think of how frequent stories about Nick Timothy & Fiona Hill harmed Theresa May’s relations with her wider government, or how Cummings’ Barnard Castle trip undermined Boris Johnson’s credibility. Away from the Chief-of-Staff position, there are numerous other examples of this issue - perhaps most famously, Stephen Byers’ spad Jo Moore and her unfortunate 9/11 Email.
However, the Chief-of-Staff post has become more prominent since its introduction under Jonathan Powell in 1997 - I don’t count David Wolfson’s 1979-1985 stint, for reasons that I have provided elsewhere. Inevitably, this has led to greater levels of public scrutiny (via the media, given the current lack of a parliamentary form of examination) regarding the role. Hence the prolonged attention that Gray is now receiving. Of course, some of this pre-dates Starmer’s arrival, given the controversy surrounding her appointment to a political post after having so recently been a senior civil servant who had investigated the Partygate scandal. It was this prior government experience that motivated her appointment – someone who, to cite Letwin, effectively ran significant parts of Whitehall was surely an obvious choice for leading Labour’s transition from opposition to government.
But Gray may now be feeling as though she has become a target for some of the early criticisms connected with this new government. In the two months since Starmer’s arrival, his Chief has been subject to briefings alleging that she has: overruled ministers, engaged in a turf war with another adviser who is close to the Prime Minister, and been behind some controversial civil service appointments.
At the centre of much of the speculation is a suggestion of a power-struggle between Gray and Morgan McSweeney. The latter, now titled Director of Political Strategy, was the director of Labour’s General Election campaign. Significantly, he himself was once Starmer’s most senior aide, serving as the then-Leader of the Opposition’s Chief-of-Staff between 2020 and 2021. Rumours now abound that McSweeney, who once headed up Labour Together (the campaign group that has supplied many of Starmer’s staff), has had a major parting-of-the-ways with Gray. This, of course, is all speculative, but the prevalence of the claim in briefings about Starmer’s Downing Street operation suggest that there may be a kernel of truth.
What matters, here, is not so much the existence of the perceived row but, rather, the personnel involved. Perception of an unsettled Downing Street can be enough to cause a Prime Minister problems. Gordon Brown’s Downing Street was perceived as chaotic and this fed negative media portrayals. Conversely, David Cameron’s team was regarded as being much more harmonious (with many senior personnel being present for the full six years of his premiership), leading to there being relatively-few “Downing Street turmoil” stories.
Current problems apparently include disagreements over office allocations and access to the Prime Minister. These are not new arguments, with several Chiefs-of-Staff having faced similar issues. Jack Brown has made clear the fierce competition for desks as physically close to the PM, in particular. This is the context in which we might better understand the rumoured repeated moving of McSweeney’s desk to offices further away from Starmer’s own. This could just have been down to an initial lack of clarity around who would sit where, given that the Political Strategy and Party relations team in Starmer’s Downing Street appears to be quite considerable. With McSweeney’s post-campaign job not being entirely clear (multiple reports suggested that he could be offered any number of different roles, if Labour won), it’s not a surprise that his precise working location was also not established. However, whilst the specifics of a desk move may be neither proven nor ultimately of the greatest significance, repeated reports of disagreements between McSweeney and Gray suggest that there could be a friction between Starmer’s two closest aides. (Incidentally, I can testify to the intensity of the politics surrounding desk moves in academia, which far outweigh those concerning anything as trivial as how to run a prime ministerial office…).
As for the issue of access, this raises one of the more sensitive aspects of the Chief’s role – that of gatekeeping. Kate Fall has made clear the importance of this. Deciding who gets to see the boss, and when, is naturally a task that will leave some disappointed. But diary management is an underappreciated and important duty. Any Chief has at least an indirect input into it, given their desire to successfully manage a PM’s key resource – time. One former spad gave me an example of the premium placed on time, by describing an average day in Cameron’s diary. The typical segments of time his diary was divided into was just five minutes. A Chief over-controlling this aspect of a PM’s operation could actually cause issues (for instance, if it meant the PM wasn’t hearing a sufficiently-wide set of perspectives). But a Chief who didn’t grip it well enough could orchestrate a chaotic lack of structure in the most fast-paced office in government.
As noted earlier, this set of problems is not new. They’re typical for any Downing Street to have to confront, especially at the start of a premiership. Gray may well have even anticipated them and, thus, we are merely witnessing the discomfort of everyone “finding their feet” and settling into a new way of operating together in what for most of them (Starmer included) is the unfamiliar environment of government. If that is the case, then it’s hard to think of anyone more likely to come out on top than Gray. She is, of course, one of the few who is both very familiar with government and, subsequently, well-acquainted with many of the civil servants & other stakeholders with whom Labour must now work. In this situation, a Chief-of-Staff who is prepared to grip these aspects is carrying out some of the core requirements of their post. Gray used to be the person who PMs turned to when they needed advice on whether key aides and ministers were fit for office. She’s now the person who decides whether they get to see the PM and, more practically, where that office is physically located.
Gray is building a fearsome reputation – about which she will probably be quite relaxed, and possibly even pleased. However, the history of senior prime ministerial aides, including chiefs-of-staff, tells us that this reputation will be best exercised more behind the scenes and less across the pages of newspapers. Starmer has the ultimate Whitehall operator as his Chief-of-Staff. Time will tell as to how effectively she finds the space in which to operate.
Dr Max Stafford is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Mile End Institute and a Fellow of Advance HE. He is currently writing a book examining mayors as political leaders, and another examining the changing role of the Downing Street Chief of Staff.