A PROMINENT member of the British government, with strong connections to Fermanagh, has left her high-profile post just three months after Labour’s landslide election victory.
On Sunday it was announced that Sue Gray had resigned from her position as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.
The departure of the top civil servant and ‘Partygate’ investigator comes following weeks of negative briefing and infighting that overshadowed Labour’s party conference in Liverpool.
Ms Gray has instead been appointed as the prime minister’s envoy for nations and regions.
The Herald previously revealed that Leo Gray, the father of Ms Gray is a Belcoo man who still has relatives living in the Holywell area of Belcoo and across the wider Fermanagh region.
Born in north London in 1957, Ms Gray’s parents moved to Tottenham in the early 1950s; her father was a furniture salesman and her mother a barmaid.
Ms Gray said that while it had been “an honour to take on the role of chief of staff”, it had become clear that “intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the government’s vital work of change”.
“It is for that reason I have chosen to stand aside, and I look forward to continuing to support the prime minister in my new role,” she said.
Ms Gray, who is married to a man from Co Down with whom she used to run the Cove Bar outside Newry, became a household name when she led the investigation into gatherings attended by then Prime Minster Boris Johnson and others at Downing Street during the Covid lockdowns.
Her report into the ‘Partygate’ scandal criticised the government led by Mr Johnson and contributed to his resignation as Prime Minister and ultimately to leaving Parliament.
Ms Gray’s resignation follows weeks of speculation about her role and reports of a power struggle at the heart of government.
Tensions over Ms Gray’s role came to a head when her salary of £170,000 – £3,000 more than the prime minister – was leaked to the BBC in an apparent attempt to damage her politically.
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