Starmer’s chief of employees quizzed over Sinn Fein connections
Sir Keir Starmer’s powerful chief of staff Sue Gray was last night facing questions over her connections with senior Sinn Fein politicians, including a former IRA terrorist who has boasted that Ms Gray was a ‘friend in court’ at No 10.
The Tories have asked Ms Gray to reveal the extent of her contacts with Republican figures after security sources said that she had held meetings with Conor Murphy, Sinn Fein’s economy minister, when she quit her senior civil service job to work for Sir Keir.
Tory peer Jonathan Caine, who worked in the Northern Ireland Office under successive Conservative governments, has tabled a question in the House of Lords asking: ‘What meetings and phone or video calls has the Prime Minister’s chief of staff had with representatives of Sinn Fein since the general election.’
Her connections with Irish Republicans – a source of intrigue since her days as the landlady of a pub in IRA ‘bandit country’ in the 1980s – came into sharp focus last week, after a public inquiry was established into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane by loyalist paramilitaries in 1989.
The Government has refused to say whether Ms Gray was involved in the decision to launch the inflammatory investigation into the extent of the involvement of the security services.
Sir Keir Starmer ’s powerful chief of staff Sue Gray was last night facing questions over her connections with senior Sinn Fein politicians
British soldiers and a armoured saracen vehicle patrol on the streets of Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, in September 1981
A source said: ‘After Sue quit the civil service she worked to actively shore up her Irish contacts, including with Murphy.’
Last night a No 10 source said: ‘We never get into staffing matters but the information you have been presented with is not entirely correct.’
Security sources have also expressed concern about Ms Gray’s failed bid to drive through a £310 million redevelopment of Casement Park, a derelict stadium in Belfast where two British soldiers were murdered by nationalists in 1988.
The plan was vetoed this weekend by Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn amid fears about soaring costs and after security officials argued that the plan was ‘a risk to civic order’ due to the opposition of Unionists.
Ms Gray’s involvement in the project had been branded ‘constitutionally improper’ by a Whitehall source, who claimed it was ‘an unelected member of staff spending public money on an area of interest to them, subverting Cabinet’.
Ms Gray, who has been dubbed ‘the court assassin’ by her critics in government because of her powerful role within the Starmer administration, has been cloaked in mystery since she gave up a Whitehall job 40 years ago and moved to Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles to become landlady of the Cove Bar, close to the border in an IRA-infested part of rural County Down.
She has denied working for British intelligence during this time, saying: ‘I’m definitely not a spy and, no, I never have been.’
Mr Murphy is the most senior Sinn Fein member to emerge from ‘bandit country’, so named because the RUC could not patrol there without an army escort.
He joined the IRA as a teenager during the hunger strikes and in 1982 was sentenced to five years in prison for IRA membership and possession of explosives.
Irish Republican Army (IRA) graffitti is seen in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 6, 2005
Tory peer Jonathan Caine, who worked in the Northern Ireland Office under successive Conservative governments, has tabled a question in the House of Lords
He became a Sinn Fein activist on his release, and was MP for Newry and Armagh from 2005 to 2015. In 2005, he became the first Irish republican to address the Tory conference, causing controversy by refusing to voice regret over IRA’s bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel 21 years previously. He is now a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).
After Ms Gray’s appointment as Sir Keir’s chief of staff, Mr Murphy said: ‘With Sue Gray, who was previously from here and is now part of [the] leader’s office… At least we have a friend in court, so we can certainly have access… directly to Downing Street.’
Conservatives have expressed disquiet over the Finucane inquiry, saying there were ‘no legal grounds’ for it and the decision ‘was a political one’.
Mr Finucane was shot by the Ulster Defence Association at his home in Belfast in front of his wife and children in 1989, aged 39. He was a defence solicitor who frequently acted for IRA members.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘The terrorists kept no records, so their barbarity is lost in the mists of time. We kept records. The problem has always been that this has appeared to Unionists like it is one-sided.’
Asked whether Ms Gray was involved in setting up the public inquiry, Labour said it would not get into staffing matters. Ms Gray, who investigated Boris Johnson over ‘Partygate’, is understood to have asked Mr Johnson to appoint her as permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office after she was blocked by cabinet secretary Simon Case.
An embarrassed Mr Johnson pretended not to hear her request.
Sinn Fein was approached for comment.
