Keir Starmer has hit back at negative briefings against his powerful chief-of-staff Sue Gray, claiming most of them are “wildly wrong”.
The Labour leader’s comments came as Ms Gray joined him in Washington DC alongside the Foreign Secretary David Lammy for meetings with Joe Biden. She appeared with the PM in the White House Blue Room with senior UK officials and the US President’s team, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
But since entering No10 there have been a series of briefings and rumours of behind-the-scenes tensions between Ms Gray and other officials, including Mr Starmer’s top aide Morgan McSweeney.
But asked by reporters whether it concerned him Ms Gray has been the subject of many stories and negative briefings, Mr Starmer replied: “I’m not going to talk behind her back and I’m not going to talk about individual members of staff, whether it’s Sue Gray or any other member of staff. All I can say about the stories is most of them are wildly wrong.”
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PA)
Ms Gray, who joined the civil service in the late 1970s, has previously worked across government departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions.
She joined the Cabinet Office in 2012 before becoming the second most senior official at the department in 2021. She was responsible for the Partygate investigation into lockdown-busting events in No10 while Boris Johnson was PM.
She later quit government in order to join Mr Starmer as his chief-of-staff in Opposition before Labour’s historic election landslide.