Sue Gray
Envoy to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the Nations and RegionsWikipedia
8
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Search complete. 8 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Sue Gray".
Oct 23, 2026
Mark D'ArcyHOST
He was heading a government department.
Mark D'ArcyHOST
It included Sue Gray, the quintessential Whitehall fixer, as his chief of staff.
Mark D'ArcyHOST
It included Pat McFadden, who had been at the centre of government in his days as Tony Blair's political secretary and had been around, seen everything throughout the new Labour years.
Mark D'ArcyHOST
And these guys looked just about as experienced a set of Whitehall managers as you could possibly conceive of.
Richard JohnsonHOST
My matter of interest this week is the appearance of Darren Jones MP to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
Richard JohnsonHOST
PACAC, as I believe it's called, is currently conducting inquiry into the failure of mission-led government, which was the brainchild of Keir Starmer and Sue Gray and their coterie, which was designed to break down divisions between government departments and to reimagine how Whitehall could work.
Richard JohnsonHOST
And after two years in office, it didn't really seem like Keir Starmer made much of a difference.
Richard JohnsonHOST
And so PACAC is trying to find out why and invited Darren Jones, who was in the first year of the Starmer government, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and then in the second year was Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, a new role the one and only holder of that role, to discuss what went wrong.
Ken MacdonaldHOST
all along.
Ken MacdonaldHOST
He also, of course, appointed Sue Gray as his chief of staff, and that didn't work out too well.
Ken MacdonaldHOST
And of course, Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, and that didn't work out well at all.
Ken MacdonaldHOST
So I think these combined certainly raise some broader questions.
Milo EdwardsHOST
That's why I said tractors 16 years old.
Ed CampbellHOST
And then the context immediately before what we're going to come into, Sue Gray publishes a damning report into lockdown busting parties across Whitehall, revealing that government staff had drunken brawls, vomited and sang karaoke until dawn while the UK observed strict COVID-19 restrictions on socialising.
Ed CampbellHOST
The Prime Minister said he is humbled and appalled, but critics doubt his contrition and calls for his resignation grow louder.
Ed CampbellHOST
It's kind of insane.
Nick AbbotHOST
Not a single idea.
Nick AbbotHOST
Tim emails, do you think the Conservatives will give Sue Gray an honour? Yeah.
Nick AbbotHOST
Well, it very much depends on what she says.
Nick AbbotHOST
And do you miss David Cameron? Well, not really.
Mark PackHOST
In a way that now seems quite weird.
Sam FreedmanGUEST
Even now, one of the things that was briefed against Sue Gray when she was briefly Chief of Staff in Number 10 was that she was trying to move Morgan McSweeney to a distant, faraway office.
Sam FreedmanGUEST
So even now they're fighting over proximity to the Prime Minister.
Mark PackHOST
There is one other trivial little thing that's just really just a passing element of the episode, though, that did make me laugh and caught my attention was I think it's made pretty clear that Malcolm Tucker was posting sort of unpleasant, anonymous comments on Peter Mannion's blog.
Cleo WatsonHOST
And there was a lot of chatter in and around the bubble about how the grownups are back.
Cleo WatsonHOST
Sue Gray was to be his chief of staff.
Cleo WatsonHOST
There was this great sense of reassurance that the grownups are back in charge.
Cleo WatsonHOST
And What Theresa May said, you know, she sees the people at the opposite side of the negotiating table with her from the EU.
HarryHOST
He, he was one of theirs.
ConnorHOST
He, he appointed Sue Gray, the sort of arch mandir in the civil service, as his chief of staff and even fell out with her.
HarryHOST
Yep.
ConnorHOST
So.