Offside? Footballing Keir Starmer repeatedly refuses to say when he first offered Partygate probe civil servant Sue Gray a job – as top shadow frontbencher says Tories accusing her of bias against Boris have ‘sour grapes’

• 60-year-old Labour leader pictured taking part in his regular five-a-side game 
• He faces questions over the appointment of Sue Gray as his new chief of staff

Keir Starmer today repeatedly refused to say when he offered a Labour job to a civil servant who carried out a probe into Boris Johnson’s Partygate lawbreaking.

The 60-year-old opposition leader, who was pictured taking part in his regular five-a-side game at the weekend, faced questions over the appointment of Sue Gray as his new chief of staff. 

Sir Keir this morning evaded questions about when he first approached Ms Gray, a senior civil servant at the Cabinet Office. 

He insisted he had ‘absolutely no contact’ with her as she prepared her report last year, amid questions about her impartiality from upset Tories.

During a phone-in on LBC Radio, Sir Keir said: ‘I’ve been looking for a chief of staff for a little while now, but Sue will lay that out, but there’s nothing improper at all.’

He added: ‘Sue Gray is known for her integrity, she’s known for her delivery in government, and those are two things that I think are essential to an incoming Labour government if we get the privilege of being voted in next year.’

Meanwhile, one of his senior frontbench team accused Tories of ‘sour grapes’ over claims her appointment showed that she was biased against Mr Johnson, who received a police fine for attending a party during the Covid lockdown.

The 60-year-old opposition leader was pictured taking part in his regular five-a-side game, as he faced questions over the appointment of Sue Gray s his new chief of staff.

Wes Streeting Meanwhile accused Tories of ‘sour grapes’ over claims her appointment showed that she was biased against Mr Johnson, who received a police fine for attending a party during the Covid lockdown.

Sue Gray was a senior civil servant at the Cabinet Office who produced a report into Mr Johnson’s Partygate lawbreaking when he was prime minister. She resigned last week to work for Labour

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told Sky News: ‘She was asked by Boris Johnson to do an inquiry. He lauded her integrity when he asked her to do it, as have, by the way, many decent Conservatives in recent days, who’ve said ‘Hang on a minute, Conservative colleagues, calm down. This is not unusual’. 

‘And she is a professional civil servant who’s worked well with Labour and Conservative ministers. She has not breached confidences, there’s no reason to expect she will do so now.

‘I can understand why there’s some sour grapes that good people are now wanting to work with Labour because they are hoping and thinking we might be the next government.’

But a top civil servant has privately raised concerns that Ms Gray broke impartiality rules by holding secret meetings with Sir Keir Starmer, it was claimed last night.

Susan Acland-Hood, permanent secretary at the Department of Education, is said to have raised concerns in an online Zoom call with colleagues.

The Telegraph reported that as she reminded other officials about their duty to impartiality, she said that Sue Gray becoming Sir Keir’s chief of staff ‘is a real challenge to acting in a way that deserves and retains the confidence of ministers’.

The role of permanent secretary is the most senior civil servant in a government department.

Ms Acland-Hood reportedly went through the Civil Service’s code on impartiality line by line, telling colleagues: ‘People who are saying there is a difficulty with this appointment because if Sue has ever held Labour Party-like political beliefs in her career she can’t have been a proper civil servant, don’t get that what the Civil Service code requires is not that we don’t have any political beliefs, but that we don’t allow our political beliefs to influence the way we do our jobs.’

Ms Acland-Hood concluded with a firm warning that ‘if anybody receives contact from the Leader of the Opposition or a member of the Shadow Cabinet you should tell your permanent secretary right away.’

Ms Gray is facing questions about whether she met this requirement under the civil service’s code of conduct.

However, a Cabinet minister today said she had ‘no reason to believe’ Ms Gray was not impartial when she investigated lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.

Michelle Donelan, the Science Secretary, told Sky News: ‘She was a leading civil servant who obviously swore and accepted the civil service code in which one of those key requirements is impartiality.’

Asked whether Ms Gray was impartial, Ms Donelan said: ‘I have no reason to believe she wasn’t.’

The circumstances of Ms Gray’s appointment to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s office should be looked at, the minister added.

‘I think what people are mainly concerned about here is what process has taken place for her to acquire this new job, have talks taken place when potentially they shouldn’t have, etc? These are the questions that need to be looked at and answered.’

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