Keir Starmer has ‘no input’ on Sue Gray pay, Labour Cabinet minister claims

The Prime Minister's chief of staff Sue Gray is being criticised for having a higher salary than him.

Keir Starmer has “no political input” in the pay of his advisers, a Labour Cabinet minister has said.

It comes as the Prime Minister's chief of staff Sue Gray was criticised for having a higher salary than him.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said there was a “long-standing process” for determining earnings for aides.

He also dismissed suggestions that the PM had personally intervened to increase Gray’s pay.

Reports that Gray received a pay rise after the election to £170,000 have sparked a row within Government and prompted opposition critics to demand answers about how the decision was made.

Reynolds told Sky News: “I think it’s important people understand that the pay bands for any official, any adviser, are not set by politicians. There’s an official process that does that.

“I don’t, for instance, get to set the pay for my own advisers who work directly for me. So there’s a process, we don’t have political input into that.”

He added: “Sue Gray is getting on with the job of this Government delivering on our promises, I think that’s what matters more than anything else for anyone who works in Downing Street, and I can assure you that is exactly what is happening.”

On whether Starmer personally intervened to increase Gray’s salary, Reynolds said: “There’s a process that sets these things. It is widely recognised. It’s long-standing. It hasn’t changed and that is how pay bands are set for any adviser.”

The appointment of Gray to Starmer's team has been controversial. She is a former senior civil servant whose report into lockdown-era parties within Downing Street contributed to the downfall of then-prime minister Boris Johnson.

The BBC report on her pay is the latest of a number of negative stories about the aide, and comes amid suggestions of mounting acrimony at the heart of the new Government over her earnings.

Downing Street denied this week that there was a “nest of vipers” behind the scenes in Starmer’s administration after reports of tensions involving senior officials, including between Gray and director of political strategy Morgan McSweeney.

Over the weekend, Starmer sought to play down the rumours about Gray, saying: “I’m not going to talk behind her back and I’m not going to talk about individual members of staff, whether it’s Sue Gray or any other member of staff.

“All I can say about the stories is most of them are wildly wrong.”

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A Downing Street spokeswoman said Starmer was satisfied that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was not behind the leaks.

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