There is one woman who Labour donors are even more keen to meet than Rachel Reeves, even though it is now Labour lore that tickets to the party’s business day with the shadow chancellor sold out faster than Taylor Swift tickets. That woman is Sue Gray. Everyone wants to meet the power behind the throne.
Gray was once a fabled Whitehall figure, whose reputation as the guardian of government ethics was unmatched among civil servants but barely known by the general public.
That changed when she became the public face of the investigation into Partygate – the flagrant breaking of Covid rules by officials under Boris Johnson, and by the prime minister himself. Then, in March 2023, Gray sensationally departed Whitehall to become Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
