The principle of civil service impartiality does not preclude officials having opinions. It requires only the professionalism to set partisanship aside when enacting government policy. That might not always be easy, and trust is not always in ready supply. Hence controversy over Labour’s recruitment of Sue Gray, a former Cabinet Office official, to serve as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
Ms Gray authored a report last year on illegal lockdown parties in Downing Street. Boris Johnson said that the investigation exonerated him, but his Conservative allies subsequently argued that the whole thing was an orchestrated campaign of subterfuge against the former prime minister, and that Ms Gray’s recruitment by the leader of the opposition proves it.
