The tension is palpable, the body language speaks volumes. These extraordinary photographs of a heated conversation in the Downing Street garden appear to lay bare the bitter feuding between Keir Starmer’s most senior officials.
Despite weeks of denials that there has been a breakdown in relations between Sue Gray, Starmer’s powerful but divisive chief of staff, and rival camps inside No 10, the pictures tell a different story.
They show Gray locked in tense talks with Michael Bourke, the Principal Private Secretary to Cabinet Secretary Sir Simon Case.
The most senior civil servant in the land, Case is embroiled in an acrimonious turf war with Gray, who wants him to leave Downing Street.
According to an eyewitness, the conversation was animated, often intense, with both parties gesticulating at each other. Gray did most of the talking.
It is said that when she plans a difficult conversation with colleagues – and apparently that is most days – she likes it to take place in the small garden between No 10 and No 9 Downing Street, the very spot where she is pictured talking to Bourke.
When the angry exchanges during the recent confrontation came to an end, Gray stomped off with a face like thunder. Bourke, clutching a vape, was left rubbing his eyes. Was he emotional? Or was it smoke from the vape? One authoritative source who saw the whole episode said: ‘It was clearly a very difficult conversation for both of them. Sue Gray was very angry about something. Again.’
A Cabinet Office spokesman called claims of a row ‘categorically untrue’ last night.
The photographs were taken just days before the astonishing BBC revelation that Gray is being paid £170,000 – more even than the Prime Minister on £167,000.
One source told the BBC that Gray had refused to accept a few thousand pounds less when it was suggested to her that, by doing so, she would avoid precisely the kind of row now taking place.
The fact she is getting more than her boss has outraged dozens of ministerial special advisers (Spads) – political appointees paid for by the taxpayer – not least because Gray has reportedly tried to reduce their own salaries on cost grounds. And it is fury over her high-handed behaviour in Downing Street and beyond that has prompted the leaks about her salary to the BBC.
As Chris Mason, the BBC’s respected Political Editor, said: ‘This is what motivated the person who tipped me off. . . And I know from other conversations I have had that this person is far from alone.
‘And that tells you something about the fractious relationships among some at the top of Government, less than three months after Labour won the election.’
Keir Starmer has now reportedly ordered an internal inquiry into the leak, and it’s claimed that Cabinet Secretary Sir Simon has been asked to head the inquiry.
Which is deeply ironic. Because, according to a well-placed source, it is the feud between Case and Gray that lies at the heart of the turmoil.
‘Someone is causing trouble by leaking stuff,’ the source said. ‘They are undermining both Gray and Case but it is the reputation of the Government which is being damaged the most. You can see from your photographs Gray is trying to lay down the law to Case’s team and telling them the hostile briefings have to stop.’
Case is also being blamed by those ministers and officials who support Gray for failing to prevent a series of leaks from within No 10. Not just about Gray’s salary, but a range of issues, including the revelations last weekend that the Prime Minister’s wife accepted £5,000 worth of free clothes and wardrobe help.
The high-end outfits for Lady Starmer were funded from the deep coffers of Labour’s biggest single donor Lord Alli, who is worth an estimated £200 million. Alli, who was given a rare, all-access pass to No 10, gifted Keir Starmer an additional £16,200 for help with his wardrobe, including suits, and £2,485 for spectacles.
After a bruising week in which Labour’s approval ratings went into freefall, yesterday Starmer pledged not to accept donations for clothing in future, along with Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The Cabinet Office has denied Case was the source of any leaks or negative briefing.
Asked if the PM was satisfied he was not behind any leaks, a No 10 spokeswoman said: ‘Yes. The Cabinet Secretary remains focused on delivering for the Prime Minister and the work of Government and working closely with the Prime Minister and Cabinet.’
As for Sue Gray, the PM said this week: ‘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.’
Intriguingly, Lord Alli’s largesse also reached Sue Gray – or at least her family. He gave £10,000 to the Beckenham and Penge constituency party where her son Liam was elected as MP in July.
The Financial Times reported yesterday that concerns had been raised in the run-up to the election that Alli was assisting Gray in the selection of some appointments to the potential Labour government.
Labour insisted he was not ‘formally’ asked about job recommendations but did not deny his involvement.
‘He made himself available and Sue was happy to have someone in the Party who was on her team helping out,’ explained a Labour source.
The FT quoted another Labour figure saying: ‘He made himself Sue’s best friend.’
There is no doubt that Gray’s large salary and overbearing power in Downing Street have caused anger and frustration.
And the disclosure that Keir Starmer has accepted a staggering £100,000 worth of free gifts, including tickets to football matches and Adele and Taylor Swift concerts, has only added to the tensions, not least because some staff have had pay cuts.
I can disclose that dozens of Spads this month for the first time joined a branch of the FDA, the civil service union in order to fight back against the influence of Gray.
They blame her for slashing their salaries to below the levels they were being paid when they worked for the Labour Party in Opposition. Gray is one of the four-strong committee which sets the pay of political appointees; the other three are civil servants.
One Labour Party official told me: ‘Now we know why salaries were pegged back by Sue Gray. Presumably she needed to cut their pay to release funds for her own bumper salary. This has gone down like a lead balloon.’
Gray was always a controversial choice as chief of staff last year. As the person in charge of ethics and propriety in the Cabinet Office, she led the investigation into Partygate which effectively ended Boris Johnson’s premiership. It was only ten months later that she was offered a job as Starmer’s chief of staff
Many Labour MPs now fear the rows over Gray could overshadow the Party Conference, which opens in Liverpool tomorrow, their first as a party of government since 2009.
The mood should have been triumphal but opinion polls are showing Starmer’s personal ratings in deep negative territory. MPs blame the internal strife in Whitehall and a lack of grip on No 10.
As for Simon Case, he is widely expected to leave Downing Street by the end of the year having started as Cabinet Secretary under Boris Johnson in 2020.
Indeed, the photographs of Gray’s altercation with his most senior official underlines a problem at the heart of the Government machine which may not lift until one of them – Gray or Case – goes.