One person, each day, to help make sense of the election.
Sue Gray’s brief doesn’t technically include deciding whether once-suspended MPs should be allowed to stand again as Labour candidates, but she’s said to be unhappy about the handling of the Diane Abbott case. As Keir Starmer’s chief of staff she has plenty else on her plate including helping her boss match people to roles in his first cabinet (assuming there’ll be one) and drawing up a “shit list” of crises for which the party has to be prepared on taking power. A former publican and advisor to four prime ministers, Gray impressed Starmer with her handling of Partygate and is now one of the most feared figures in his inner circle. One source tells the Guardian she used to have cats who preceded her into meetings like familiars, whereupon the room would fall silent.
