Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will on Tuesday face renewed pressure over his decision to appoint civil servant Sue Gray as his chief of staff, when ministers update parliament on their investigation into the matter.
Gray, who led the inquiry into coronavirus lockdown parties in Downing Street and Whitehall, resigned from the levelling up department with immediate effect in March to take on the Labour role.
The decision was met with strong criticism from several Tory MPs and allies of former prime minister Boris Johnson, who argued that her move to Labour undermined the notion of civil service impartiality.
Jeremy Quin, paymaster general and minister for the Cabinet Office, will on Tuesday update MPs on “the circumstances leading to the resignation of a senior civil servant”.
In March, Quin told the House of Commons that an investigation had been launched over concerns that civil service rules had been broken by Gray’s move to Labour.
Current rules state that approval must be given by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, the government’s appointment watchdog, before a job offer is made public. Quin said that the Cabinet Office had not yet been informed that the relevant Acoba notification had been made.
Gray had most recently served as second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. She also held the position of director-general of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office between 2012 and 2018.
On Monday, Tory MPs expressed outrage over Gray’s appointment to Starmer’s team. “She was at the heart of government, she was in charge of propriety and ethics, she should know better than anyone the requirements expected of someone moving into the private sector,” said one senior Tory figure.
“Both she and Keir should have known better, it’s not good for the perception of the civil service more broadly”.
Another Conservative MP added: “It does look very ominous for her”.
“I can’t personally see any rules being broken, but the optics of all of this have been awful,” one senior Tory backbencher said.
Labour has insisted that no talks took place between Gray and officials from the party during her “partygate” investigation.
Earlier this year, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves argued Labour had been looking for a chief of staff “for several months” and Gray was one of several people approached for the role.
Acoba guidelines state that all permanent secretaries and second permanent secretaries are “subject to a minimum waiting period of three months between leaving paid civil service employment and taking up an outside appointment or employment”.
However, the advisory body also noted that it “may consider that public concern about a particular appointment or employment could be of such a degree or character that a longer waiting period is appropriate”.
If Gray’s appointment is found to have been within the rules, she may still have to take a long period of gardening leave before taking up her post with Labour, according to insiders.
“I would be very surprised if Acoba didn’t conclude that she needed an extensive period of leave before taking up the position,” one Tory MP added.
The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
