Baroness Sue Grey, previously Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of workers, has described her tenure in Downing Avenue as “undoubtedly insufferable,” citing inside disputes and anxieties over colleagues secretly recording conversations. In her first public interview since resigning from the position, Grey detailed the numerous challenges she confronted, significantly relating to inside briefing wars that created a local weather of mistrust.
Grey, who served as the highest adviser within the Labour administration earlier than her departure in 2024, expressed disappointment that Starmer didn’t take extra decisive motion in opposition to destructive leaks to journalists. These feedback have been made throughout an interview on the Political Forex podcast with Ed Balls, marking her first public statements since stepping down.
The previous chief of workers recounted how destructive briefings in opposition to her started even when Labour was in opposition, with studies surfacing about issues she supposedly mentioned or did. This sample continued after getting into authorities.
“I had at all times taken a view as a civil servant and really as a particular adviser that you realize you must be capable of converse freely in rooms,” Grey defined. “And I couldn’t recall these type of discussions being briefed out. And but right here I discovered myself, you realize, tales about supposedly attempting to maneuver Morgan McSweeney to the again of the constructing.” She clarified {that a} particular incident, which was misreported as an try and sideline a colleague, was truly a sensible dialogue about discovering a bigger room for a gathering. “Really, that was a real, ‘I can’t imagine so a lot of you will sit on this small room, let’s discover a higher room for you’,” she mentioned.
The persistent destructive briefings led to a pervasive sense of unease. “It simply received to the purpose the place you realize every part you say, you’re feeling is any person is recording it,” Grey acknowledged, highlighting the damaging impression on the working atmosphere.
Issues Over Management Response
When questioned about Sir Keir Starmer’s willingness to handle her considerations, Grey indicated that she had spoken with him on a few events. Whereas she most well-liked to not disclose the specifics of those non-public conversations, she conveyed her disappointment. “I used to be dissatisfied that no more was accomplished as a result of I believe it might have been accomplished,” she admitted.
The Labour authorities below Starmer has confronted inside criticism relating to its inside tradition. Deputy chief Lucy Powell, as an example, has beforehand described a “boys membership” ambiance inside Quantity 10, characterised by “nameless nasty briefings,” disproportionately focusing on ladies.
Grey echoed these sentiments, stating, “It was undoubtedly insufferable, significantly for me. And I might say that none of that briefing got here from me. I believe it was very tough, and it was simply affecting me and my life. I used to be entering into the workplace very early within the morning. I used to be leaving late to keep away from…. It was very, very, very tough interval.”
Setting the Imaginative and prescient
Addressing the early days of the Labour authorities and the notion of a scarcity of a transparent, constructive imaginative and prescient, Grey acknowledged the last word accountability of management. “I believe in the end, you will have a frontrunner of the social gathering, you will have a primary minister, chief of the opposition. It’s important to set your imaginative and prescient, your agenda, and that’s undoubtedly what everyone is searching for,” she remarked.
Background and Transition
Baroness Grey transitioned from a outstanding, albeit much less public, position as an arbiter of conduct inside the civil service to a family identify following her investigation into breaches of COVID-19 rules at Boris Johnson’s Downing Avenue in 2021. Her subsequent transfer to hitch Labour as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of workers after a long time in Whitehall drew scrutiny, with questions raised about her impartiality.
Following weeks of destructive press protection and inside briefings, Grey introduced her resignation in December 2024. In her assertion, she cited considerations that she had turn into a “distraction” to the federal government’s work. Her departure from the Cupboard Workplace marked the top of an extended profession in public service.
Within the wake of her resignation, Baroness Grey was among the many 30 new Labour friends introduced in December, signifying a continued, albeit completely different, engagement with the political sphere.
