Keir Starmer's former chief of staff has said working inside his Downing Street operation was "unbearable", revealing she feared her conversations were being recorded by colleagues and leaked to journalists.
Sue Gray, who served as the most senior adviser in No 10 before resigning in 2024, gave a critical account of the working environment under Starmer, saying she was "disappointed" that he did not act on her concerns about staff briefing against her to the media.
Speaking to the Political Currency podcast, in an interview shared with the Guardian, Gray offered her first detailed reflection on the tensions that marked the early months of Starmer's government, shedding light on a culture that has previously been described as a "boys' club" within Downing Street.
In the weeks before her resignation, Starmer faced accusations that he had lost control of his senior team following a string of damaging leaks, including reports about Gray's salary being higher than the prime minister's and details of strained relationships with colleagues.
Addressing a story that suggested she had tried to move Starmer's other key aide, Morgan McSweeney, further away from the prime minister, Gray told podcast host Ed Balls: "I had always taken a view as a civil servant and actually as a special adviser that you should be able to speak freely in rooms … I couldn't recall those sort of discussions being briefed out, and yet here I found myself."
She added: "Stories about supposedly trying to move Morgan McSweeney to the back of the building. Actually, that was a genuine … 'I can't believe so many of you are going to sit in this small room. Let's find a better room for you.' It just got to the point where you know everything you say, you feel somebody is recording it."
Asked whether Starmer had acted on her concerns, Gray said: "I talked to him a couple of times about it, and I don't really want to disclose individual conversations. But I was disappointed that not more was done because I think it could have been done."
She described the atmosphere in No 10 as "definitely unbearable, particularly for me", adding: "I would say that none of that briefing came from me. I think it was very difficult, and it was just affecting me and my life … It was a very, very, very difficult period."
Gray is the second senior woman from Starmer's administration to have recently expressed frustration at his leadership. Yvette Cooper, who was home secretary at the time, told the same podcast earlier this month that she felt sidelined by Starmer's No 10 during the launch of a major immigration policy.
During his two years in Downing Street, Starmer experienced significant staff turnover. Gray lasted only four months in the role, having previously worked for Starmer in opposition to prepare for government. She was succeeded by McSweeney, who later resigned over his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.
Starmer has not given a major interview since being forced from office by his MPs, but has previously acknowledged that appointing Gray was a mistake, despite her extensive background as a senior civil servant and former ethics chief who led the Partygate inquiry into Boris Johnson.
Allies of Starmer have previously blamed Gray for inadequate preparation for government during her time overseeing planning for the first 100 days in office while Labour was in opposition. Gray rejected this, insisting "a lot" had been achieved, including work on restoring British-Irish relations and engagement with the European Commission and the US administration. She suggested that responsibility for media announcements should have rested with the communications team. It has previously been reported that Labour's communications staff were not confirmed in their roles until the day the party entered government in July 2024.
Not everyone who worked in Downing Street at the time shares Gray's recollection of events. One senior female adviser from the period disputed the suggestion of a briefing culture against Gray, describing it instead as "precisely the kind of paranoia that, ironically, Sue herself brought into the building". She added: "She was literally clapped in with genuine excitement about her experience. But she quickly undermined herself. It didn't need to be this way, she wrote her own story."
Another former adviser also challenged the characterisation of a "boys' club", saying: "Before Sue's arrival there was no narrative about a 'boys' club' and in my whole time in there, I never recognised it. There have been damaging implications from that divisiveness; two and a half years on, the new prime minister is being asked about it, costing him time and energy, and the Labour government's reputation."
There has been speculation that Andy Burnham could bring Gray, now a Labour peer, back into government in an advisory capacity. Asked whether she might return to a high-profile role, Gray said she was enjoying life outside government while remaining involved in "many aspects of public life".
Reflecting on what she believed had gone wrong within Starmer's government, Gray said: "I think government and opposition are very different, and I'm not sure I would say they shouldn't have survived, but I do think that we needed bigger people, people with bigger experience to be heads of, whether it was comms or policy or strategy. Government is very, very different."
