A senior cabinet minister has denied that No 10 is at a crisis point despite the prime minister’s chief of staff leaving her post less than 100 days into the new Labour government.
John Healey defended his cabinet colleagues on Monday amid suggestions that, had a senior Conservative aide quit No 10 in similar circumstances, he would have claimed his opponents were in disarray.
Asked on LBC radio how he would characterise the Labour administration, and whether it was at crisis point, the defence secretary said: “No, I’d characterise this as a new government getting on with the job.”
And, asked on Times Radio whether he would have accused the Tories of being a “total shambles” in similar circumstances, Healey said: “In the end, what counts for people is what government does. We’re getting on with the job people elected us [to do].”
Healey was facing questions over Labour’s direction after the Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, quit on Sunday, shortly before the government marks 100 days in office.
Gray will be replaced by Morgan McSweeney, who masterminded Labour’s election victory, and with whom she was said to have found herself at odds in government. While she was acknowledged as an expert on the workings of the civil service, some insiders were unhappy at her handling of the controversy over freebies, among other issues.
Gray had become the focus of news reporting, and said after resigning on Sunday that it had become clear “intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the government’s vital work of change”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Healey said: “Sue Gray played a massive role in helping us prepare for government. But she said herself yesterday the commentary around her position risked distracting the government from the work of change and that’s what we’re doing.”
Healey told Times Radio that “sadly, it’s nothing new” to see a senior No 10 aide become “a lightning rod for criticism”, echoing comments made by the party’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman, who on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour said “missteps” and “clunkiness” were to be expected when a party first returned to office after a long period in opposition.
Gray will take on a new role as the prime minister’s envoy to the nations and regions. The Guardian understands she is also expected to receive a peerage. It is not yet clear whether the envoy position will be paid or not. Healey refused to be drawn on the question, telling LBC: “None of those are decisions for me.”
The defence secretary rejected a suggestion by the Blair-era spin doctor Alastair Campbell that the government had made a mistake in its timing of the budget, which had allowed other stories to fill the vacuum.
It was put to him that Campbell had suggested it was a serious mistake to allow narratives to develop without enough sense of how the government would deliver change. “We saw with Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng what happens when you try and rush a budget. So this needs to be done properly,” Healey told Today.
The Tories accused the ruling party of allowing itself to descend into “chaos”, with the leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick claiming on X that the new administration was in “freefall”.
Fewer than 100 days in and Labour are in disarray.
— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) October 6, 2024
Starmer’s handpicked chief of staff has been forced out after vicious infighting.
He’s without a national security advisor and the most senior civil servant has rushed for the exit door.
This government is in free fall. pic.twitter.com/ZdVUZtLX2a
The shadow Commons leader, Chris Philp, told GB News: “What this shows us is that Keir Starmer’s government has collapsed into chaos after just 93 days.
“He can’t even run his own No 10 Downing Street operation, let alone run the country. This has all fallen apart a lot faster than I was expecting.”
