‘Ludicrous!’ Labour scoff at claims Sue Gray appointment is a Boris Partygate stitch-up

The former senior civil servant has been appointed to Labour’s chief of staff

Labour has hit back at “ludicrous” claims that Sue Gray was appointed as part of a Boris Johnson stitch-up over his involvement in Downing Street parties.

The party’s shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, condemned suggestions from the former prime minister’s allies that Sue Gray’s plans to join Sir Keir Starmer's office show that the Partygate scandal was manufactured to bring down the former prime minister.

She told Times Radio on Friday morning: “I think that's just a ludicrous claim by Boris Johnson and stands in stark contrast to what he said at the time the report was published, and all the while that the report and the investigation was taking place, when the prime minister - and indeed the rest of the Conservative government - were at pains to tell the country how independent and impartial, and how formidable, Sue Gray was as a civil servant, which she absolutely was.”