'Sue Gray deserves peerage', says minister as dozens of new Lords announced

Sue Gray resigned from her position as Downing Street chief of staff in October - (PA Wire)

A Minister has defended Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray getting a peerage as dozens of new lords were announced on Friday.

The senior civil servant, whose partygate report helped lead to the downfall of Boris Johnson’s government, has given “decades” to the civil service, Energy Consumers Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh said.

She told LBC on Thursday: “Sue Gray has been a huge public servant. There is no one who can look at her record over decades in support of public services and say she doesn’t deserve it.”

Thirty new Labour peers were nominated on Friday .

Ex West Ham MP Lyn Brown and former shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire, who lost her Bristol West seat to the Greens at the general election, will join Ms Gray in the House of Lords.

Ms Gray served as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff for just four months earlier this year after leaving her role as second permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office to join the Labour leader’s top team.

However, she quit in October amid reports of tensions in Number 10 involving Ms Gray, including between her and Sir Keir’s chief adviser, Morgan McSweeney, who succeeded her in the role.

Sir Keir had previously pledged to abolish the House of Lords.

The new Labour Government has introduced plans to get rid of all hereditary peers from the parliamentary chamber.

Earlier this year MPs backed a bill that would abolish the 92 seats reserved for peers who inherit their titles through their families.

MPs voted for the government proposals by 435 votes to 73.

The bill has now gone to the Lords, where it faces tough opposition.

The Conservatives oppose the proposals. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart claimed the government was "seeking to remove established scrutineers in order to replace them with Labour appointees".