Sue Gray quickly gets stuck in as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff

Former civil servant offers morale boost and promises Labour staff she has their back'

When Sue Gray went from being a backroom Whitehall fixer to household name because of her Partygate report, the senior civil servant was so uncomfortable at being thrust into the limelight that she privately joked to colleagues last year she had seriously considered changing her name by deed poll.

Now Gray occupies an even bigger role in frontline politics. No longer an impartial official advising ministers, she shocked Westminster by jumping ship to take up a political post as Keir Starmer's chief of staff.