Baroness Sue Gray has described working as Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff as “unbearable” as she said fears of internal disputes being leaked was "very, very difficult".
The peer, who served as the top adviser in the Labour administration before leaving in 2024, said there were anxieties within No 10 that colleagues were secretly taping “everything you say”, and criticised the former prime minister for failing to act further against negative leaks to journalists.
Speaking in her first interview following her resignation two years ago, she also suggested Sir Keir lacked “vision” as he came into office, but said Andy Burnham in contrast “has come in with a very clear view of what he wants to do”.
“I think, ultimately, you have a leader of the party, you have a prime minister, leader of the opposition,” she told Ed Balls on the Political Currency podcast. “You have to set your vision, your agenda. That is definitely what everybody is looking for.”
She added: “You need leadership, vision, and I think that will have been very difficult in these times.”
Speaking about Sir Keir’s successor, Mr Burnham, she said: “He’s got huge experience, not just of central government, but also being a mayor, and delivering. I think they’re very different people.”
Asked about the briefings against her, she said they had started while Labour was in opposition, where she would “read about things that I would have said or not said”, which continued on into government.
“I had always taken a view as a civil servant and actually as a special adviser that you know you should be able to speak freely in rooms,” she said.
“And I couldn’t recall those sort of discussions being briefed out.
“And yet here I found myself, you know, stories about supposedly trying to move Morgan McSweeney to the back of the building.
“Actually, that was a genuine, ‘I can’t believe so many of you are going to sit in this small room, let’s find a better room for you’.”
She continued: “It just got to the point where you know everything you say, you feel is somebody is recording it.”
Asked whether Sir Keir was willing to act on her concerns, she said: “I talked to him a couple of times about it, and I don’t really want to disclose individual conversations, but I was disappointed that not more was done because I think it could have been done.”
Sir Keir’s government has faced criticism from Labour members, including the party’s deputy leader Lucy Powell, who described a “boys club” culture in No 10, with a pattern of “anonymous nasty briefings” – particularly against women.
“It was definitely unbearable, particularly for me,” Lady Gray said. “And I would say that none of that briefing came from me.
“I think it was very difficult, and it was just affecting me and my life.
“I was getting into the office very early in the morning. I was leaving late to avoid…. It was very, very, very difficult period.”
Lady Gray went from being an influential but little-known arbiter of conduct in the civil service to a household name when she took on the probe into Covid rule-breaking at Boris Johnson’s Number 10 in 2021.
Impartiality was later called into question amid criticism of her move to quit the Cabinet Office after decades in Whitehall and join Labour as Sir Keir’s chief of staff.
After weeks of negative briefings, she announced her resignation in a statement citing concerns that she was “becoming a distraction” to the work of government.
Following her departure, Lady Gray was among 30 new Labour peers announced last December.
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