For many years—long before she became known as the Inquisitor of Partygate—the name Sue Gray had been synonymous with integrity in Whitehall.
She sacked cabinet ministers for breach of ethics and shocked David Cameron by stepping in to block some of his decisions within a week of his arrival at 10 Downing Street.
Her sudden move to Labor after secret negotiations with Sir Keir Starmer came as a surprise, as she risked damaging her reputation and that of the civil service in general.
But her total refusal to work with her old cabinet colleagues, who are investigating the circumstances of her departure, is an even bigger blow to the idea that she represented the ideal to rule by the book.
If Mrs. Grey, as almost certainly, entered into negotiations with Sir Keir’s team while still in public service and did not inform her superiors, this is a clear violation of the rules designed to ensure the impartiality of senior mandarins and their visibility. be like that.
Sir Keir himself was greeted by fellow “Mr.” Rules”, but in this case he was not “for”. No wonder conservatives are outraged.
It is now clear that Mrs. Gray has learned one important lesson from her decades in office: the key to politics is power, and to get your way, you must ignore any obstacles that are not entirely insurmountable.
Her new boss knows it too. Sir Keir is focused on leading Labor to victory, whatever conventions – such as the agreement that no one can become party leader based on political promises he doesn’t want to keep – may have to break. .
The job may require caution. Boris Johnson was a notorious constitutional vandal, but he got things done; does Sir Keir really want to put the same label on himself?