Why Sue Gray was ousted – and what it means for No 10

Good morning.

Keir Starmer promised to usher in a new era of “stability and moderation” when Labour won the election, after years of Conservative “failure, chaos and division”. His ‘grownups are in charge’ leadership style was supposed to mark the end of the psychodrama that dominated previous governments. Instead, in the first 100 days of Starmer’s administration, the prime minister has had to contend with leaks, infighting and scandals about gifts from donors.

This all came to a head over the weekend, with the departure of Sue Gray, Starmer’s chief of staff, who had become an increasingly polarising figure in Westminster. The hostility in Starmer’s team has long been simmering but could no longer be contained after Gray’s £170,000 salary was leaked to the BBC.

The former senior civil servant has been replaced by Starmer’s closest political aide, Morgan McSweeney, who reportedly had a challenging relationship with Gray. It culminated in a power struggle that left Gray demoted to a part-time role and McSweeney ascendant as Starmer’s right-hand man.

For today’s newsletter, I spoke with the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, about what Gray’s departure tells us about stability in No 10. That’s right after the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: Gray became a lightning rod for all of the frustration with the government

When Starmer appointed Sue Gray, the civil servant who headed up the Partygate investigation, it was immediately controversial. But her knowledge of the government and her efficiency was supposed to help Starmer govern in a structured way. Three months into power and she is already out – what happened?

Power-hungry or in control?

The person who occupies the chief of staff role will inevitably ruffle feathers. But Gray seemed to have made many foes during her relatively short stint – people who leaked many stories that portrayed her as a power-hungry antagonist who was impossible to work with.

Some of the complaints against her are well known. Graycontrolled the government’s diary of planned announcements, known internally as the grid, but was criticised for not having a stronger hold on the news agenda. “There was frustration that the government was not making the announcements that they should have been. For example, renationalisation of the railways is a huge change and yet we barely heard anything about it when it actually happened,” Pippa says.

Gray has also been accused of needlessly blocking and limiting access to the prime minister. In one way, this is the role of the chief of staff – “deciding what the prime minister sees and who he needs to speak to was her job”, Pippa says. People who were used to walking into Starmer’s office when Labour was the opposition no longer had the same kind of access they were accustomed to. In her eyes, Gray may merely have been doing her job, but to others she was a “control freak” who got in the way of decision-making.

In no time at all, Gray became a lightning rod for all of the discontent and frustration with and across the government. “I don’t think, for example, you could put the winter fuel decision at her door – that was a treasury decision and agreed by Starmer,” Pippa says.

The significance of her departure

Gray’s exit shows that Starmer has listened to the many voices who were telling him that he needed to get a firmer grip on the operation of his party because the optics were damaging. The hope is that with her departure, Starmer can counteract the negativity surrounding his fledgling government. Alongside the latest news, a host of appointments have been made – including Nin Pandit, a former director of the Downing Street policy unit, who has filled the vacant seat as Starmer’s principal private secretary, the most senior civil service position in his office – and James Lyons, a former political journalist who will lead a new strategic communications team.

Though it may seem inconsequential to swap out one senior adviser for another, if the situation does not improve quickly, says Pippa, “it will confirm fears of some Labour politicians that the issue is not just one individual person in Downing Street but a broader problem with the whole top team and with the strategic direction – or lack of it – that is set from the very top”.

McSweeney v Gray

The power struggle between Morgan McSweeney and Gray over recent months became so petty that Gray reportedly moved McSweeney’s desk further from Starmer’s office, presumably to make it harder for him to reach the prime minister. (Both parties have strenuously denied this claim.)

Now that McSweeney (pictured above) has come out on top, what is actually going to change? The most obvious difference between the former chief of staff and the new one is that Gray is a lifelong civil servant with an intricate knowledge of how government works. “Lots of cabinet ministers in particular welcomed the fact that she knew how to get stuff done,” Pippa says. McSweeney, on the other hand, does not have the same institutional knowledge or tools.

Credited as the brains behind Starmer’s leadership campaign, McSweeney is thought to offer something different to the prime minister, who has long been criticised for his lack of “political acumen to take quick decisions based on how the public view things,” Pippa says. “While Starmer may have a longer-term strategic mind, it sometimes can make him appear a tad out of touch, because, ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether he thinks something is important or not – it matters whether the public does.”

McSweeney has been given the post, in theory, to remedy that, moving away from the technocratic and managerial style that Starmer, Gray and Rachel Reeves lean in to.

“Downing Street will be hoping that McSweeney will be able to get a grip on the politics of it all and start to help them tell a better story about what the government’s trying to do,” Pippa says.

What else we’ve been reading

• Sam Wollaston meets the doyenne of performance art Marina Abramović (above) in an interview that’s as entertaining to read as it was seemingly awkward to endure. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters

• David Spiegelhalter asks whether most of us are thinking about luck in the wrong way: “Once we properly acknowledge our existential and constitutive luck, we are left with a daunting but hopeful task: to try to make the best of the hand we’ve been dealt,” he writes in The big idea column. Nimo

• Don’t have time and/or hate yourself enough to read Boris Johnson’s memoir, Unleashed? Fear not, John Crace has a “Bozztastic” Digested read. Hannah

• Jessica Murray reports on the potential fallout of huge cuts to youth services in Birmingham. Nimo

• Millions of Palestinians are living a life “squeezed at the edges by a constant and building pressure”, writes Nesrine Malik in an urgent and searching column from the West Bank. Hannah

Sport

Cricket | Nat Sciver-Brunt struck an unbeaten 48 as England beat South Africa to go to the top of Group B at the Women’s T20 World Cup. England’s bowlers were praised for “digging deeper” after they fought back to take three wickets as Pakistan ended the opening day of the test in Multan on 328 for four.

Football | Manchester City have claimed victory in their legal dispute over the Premier League’s associated party transaction (APT) regulations, after a tribunal found aspects of the rules to be unlawful. The champions said they had “succeeded” with their claim against the APT rules, after a panel said that the exclusion of shareholder loans from APT calculations and the process by which clubs were informed of “benchmarking” decisions were unlawful.

Basketball | LeBron and Bronny James became the first father and son to play in any NBA game together during the first-half of the Lakers’ preseason contest against Phoenix on Sunday, spending just over four minutes side-by-side in the second quarter. “It’s definitely a moment that I will never forget,” LeBron said.

The front pages

The Guardian’s splash this morning is “‘The pain will never leave’”: Israel marks one year since Hamas attack”. Sue Gray’s departure is the basement story on the front, while it’s kicking on as the lead in the Times which says “No10 crisis ‘bigger than Gray’”. “Come clean on what Lord Alli got for his cash” – the Daily Mail says there are “extraordinary new claims about the extent of influence granted to peer who bought Starmer’s glasses”. “Cost of borrowing mounts as Reeves walks ‘tightrope’ over spending plans” – that’s the Financial Times while the Telegraph has “Deported thief uses ECHR to stay in UK”. The Daily Express reports on a protest outside parliament: “United against Labour’s ‘cruel’ winter fuel cut”. “Phil to Holly: You brought me down” – not Phil saying it, but a “pal” of Phil, the Daily Mirror concedes in the smaller print. “Our £14bn hellholes” is the Metro headline over its lead story, about potholes and the “injuries and even deaths” they are causing to road users and pedestrians.

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Stephen Lillie

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

When musician Joy Eseoghene Odiete’s baby, Chinua, was born with lissencephaly and cerebral palsy, she experienced significant social upheaval. Her marriage ended, her friends abandoned her, and her music career stalled as she faced the financial reality of raising a child with special needs. Now Odiete has set up the Chinua Children Care Foundation in Nigeria to support other families with children with special needs, and to advocate for an education and welfare system for those children. In 2022, she released the song Special Mothers as a campaign for the foundation.

Odiete (pictured above, third from right) has helped break the stigma against children with special needs in Nigeria, empowering mothers to be openly proud of their children and access resources for support. “Sometimes, we come together to laugh, cry and hug each other. This helps improve our mental health as caregivers to special needs children – a task which comes with diverse challenges,” says Odiete.

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

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